Russell Slade admitted he felt “sick” after watching his team slump to their second consecutive defeat in League One.

Leyton Orient lost 1-0 at home to Stevenage on Tuesday night to leave them still searching for their first point of the season.

The O’s manager said: “Nobody wanted to get off to a better start than me and we’ve worked so hard over the close season to try and get the pre-season right. It leaves a sick feeling inside to be honest that we’ve not got something from the game.

“I don’t think particularly we deserved anything from Saturday’s game at Tranmere though it was a match again of few chances. But tonight certainly we should have come away with something.”

Slade continued: “I thought at times we looked a little bit disjointed particularly with our passing at times.

“We needed a little bit more courage and I thought we got that in the second half when we got on top, grinded them down and we created chances to at least get back in the game and get something out of it, that’s for sure.”

The decisive goal at Brisbane Road came midway through the first half when Lucas Akins shot through a crowd of players and past Orient goalkeeper Jamie Jones.

It was a soft goal for the O’s to concede and Slade felt that it summed up the way things have gone for the side in the first week of the season.

Orient’s boss said: “We dealt with the first one [ball] and we had a chance to clear it but we’ve not quite cleared. It’s a shot that’s straight at the goalkeeper but I think he struggled to see it.

"It’s gone straight under his legs but it seems to happen to us and their keeper pulls one right out the top corner of the net. It’s about goals and that was the difference tonight.

“They dropped deeper and deeper as that second period went on but they still managed to get a foot in, or a header to turn it around for a corner. We were putting them under immense pressure. We’ve hit the crossbar or the upright towards the end of the game but it wasn’t quite to be.”

Kevin Lisbie missed the midweek defeat through injury but is expected to be available for the home clash with Hartlepool United this weekend.

However Scott Cuthbert faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering a hamstring injury at Tranmere.

“Kevin had a slight injury,” Slade said. “I’m not sure whether it was a hamstring or muscle strain. We don’t think it’s going to be too severe and he has a strong possibility of being available for Saturday. But the same doesn’t apply for Scott. He’s going to be out for a good few weeks.”