Leyton Orient boss Andy Hessenthaler accused his side of shooting themselves in the foot and lacking leadership qualities after two goals in two minutes shortly after half-time halted their charge at Notts County today.

The O's had produced a dogged, if unspectacular, first-half performance at Meadow Lane against a County side without a home win since April 14, but found themselves two goals down nine minutes after the interval thanks to Jonathan Forte and Jon Stead.

The trend of conceding within minutes of half-time is becoming a worrying trend for Hessenthaler's side, and the manager insisted he had warned his players of taking their foot off the pedal during the interval.

"They were getting a bit frustrated early on and it was perfect, being away from home and coming in 0-0 at half-time," he said after the match. "Whenever you do that away from home you’d take that before the game.

"We shot ourselves in the foot in the second half. We said it all in there at half-time, but unfortunately we didn’t do it out there on the pitch.

"We've got to make sure we start the second half right because it's becoming a pattern, but we don't.

The first goal, Alex [Cisak] has got to be disappointed, he's got to come and help the back four out. That gave them that little bit of impetus and momentum.

"There was 10 minutes left [after we scored] with the six minutes added on, but Parksey, and he's had a good game, has dribbled with the ball but the fella's nicked it off him.

"Ulrich [Nnomo] has tried to chase it back but he's quick, has cut inside and it's an excellent finish. Again we've shot ourselves in the foot as there were five minutes to go and we could easily have got ourselves an equaliser there."

Hessenthaler may have regrets over the O's summer transfer policy after revealing the club had failed in a pursuit to find an experienced centre back, something he feels has played a part in their poor defensive record in recent weeks.

"It's the same theme, the goals we keep conceding," he said. "We're probably lacking some experience at the back, a proper leader.

"It's difficult now because of the loan situation, but it was something we looked at in the summer but we unfortunately haven't been able to do that.

"We need a voice, an organiser to organise that back five, but it's not just that, it's the whole team.

"The goal came from further up the pitch when they broke for the first, and we've got to stay switched on.

"We've got to stay switched on, they're the home team, they're going to put balls in our box and we've got to defend them and we just didn't."