Interim head coach Ross Embleton said that Leyton Orient didn’t “fight” hard enough as they fell to a 3-0 defeat away at Macclesfield Town.

Goals from Theo Archibald, Paddy Osadebe and Theo Vassell saw Sol Campbell’s side ease to victory at Moss Rose against an Orient side who were contesting their first away game back in the Football League.

The O’s had previously battled to a 1-0 win against Cheltenham Town last week to secure their first points of the season, but those same qualities weren’t on show on Saturday and Embleton suggested that the side are going to have much tougher assignments as the season goes on.

Speaking to the club website after the game, he said: “We’ve got to be capable of coming to places like this. Obviously weather-wise the conditions were tough but it’s going to get much tougher going into the winter months.

“I think what we didn’t do well enough today was fight and scramble for the tougher and the uglier part of the game, which didn’t give us any opportunity to analyse or talk about tactics, which needs to be the underlining part to any team to go out and compete, and I thought we were below par on that level today.”

As well as a performance that was below expectations, Embleton was also unhappy with the manner of the goals conceded as both came from good attacking positions for his side.

He said: “I’m just very frustrated at all three goals today. The second one killed the game off as a contest really and it was the manner in which both the first and the second goals came from our corner and one was our own attack.

“We talk about the work rate and the intensity that this group has got through and one big thing that we try to pride ourselves on is the way that we defend set-pieces, the way that we defend crosses, and that’s a massive part of the game as this level, and again a thoroughly disappointing goal to concede from a set-piece.”

The O’s were well backed in Cheshire and Embleton made sure that the players acknowledged the travelling support after the game.

He said: “We value everybody’s support. We know that people will stick with us and certainly I know that people will be disappointed today because the performance wasn’t good enough, but win, lose or draw we will always show our appreciation.

“We were followed well today, unfortunately we didn’t give our crown and our support anything to really grab hold of. When you come to places like this you’ve got to be able to do that because we need every inch of support that we can get.”

Next up for Embleton’s side is a trip to Plymouth Argyle in the first round of the Carabao Cup, and he says it’s a competition they will take seriously, and they will aim to get a result in Devon.

He said: “We’ve come here today to try and get a win so we’ll certainly be going to Plymouth to try to get one. We’ll look at the team and see how people have recovered off of today and having a long journey home. I’ll analyse the performance tomorrow and start to make my decisions about what the team will look like on Tuesday.”