Andy Hessenthaler admitted he did not think Stevenage’s Dean Wells should have been off at the time as Leyton Orient beat The Boro 3-1 in the EFL Trophy.

A double from Paul McCallum and a volley from Sandro Semedo was enough to seal the win for the east London club before Fraser Franks added a consolation goal in the second half.

Wells was sent off in the 13th minute after he elbowed McCallum and the result sent Orient to the top of Southern Group G as Southend United beat Brighton & Hove Albion’s under-23s 2-0.

“I did see the incident at the time but it didn’t look like it was a sending off to me,” said Hessenthaler.

“I haven’t saw it since but a couple of the lads have saw it on the video and it looks like he has thrown an elbow.

“If he has, he is a silly boy and it obviously has not helped their cause tonight as they ended up losing the game.

“But I have not actually seen it on the video yet.”

Orient produced a fine performance compared to their last minute 2-1 defeat to Mansfield Town at the weekend with Harry Cornick providing a star performance.

A debut was given to 16-year-old striker Sam Dalby who will look to gain more game time with the club.

Hessenthaler added: “That was the only blemish from the game tonight, conceding the goal, again we have conceded from set play.

“And it could have been avoided, we are not doing our job and we talked about that during the week about how important set plays are and we have got to learn.

“We have got to learn quickly or otherwise we are going to keep on doing it.”

Jay Simpson was also a miss from the squad this evening and has previously missed two league games against Grimsby and Mansfield after he ruled himself out with a back injury.

“Jay’s back is getting better, he has seen a specialist today and hopefully he will be able to kick on with more running in the next few days.”