Ross Embleton says Leyton Orient were “beaten by the better team” in their 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Plymouth Argyle.
Orient, playing their first game in the competition since the 2016/17 season, were downed by two quick second-half goals from Callum McFadzean and Dom Telford as the League Two leaders ran out winners at Home Park.
Speaking to the club website after the game, Embleton said: “I think first and foremost we were beaten by the better team tonight. I think it will take some going to stop them when they hit the rhythm they did tonight but at times I felt we defended very well in the first half. We knew we were going to have long periods without the ball but we showed a good level of compactness, we stayed together, we set out to make it difficult for them and at times I thought we did.
“There were times where we regained the ball and hit the passes and looked to counter attack in the manner that we’d set out to do and not that we looked a particular threat, but it got us up the pitch and I felt we could have imposed ourselves on the game a little bit more on that front.”
Embleton made four changes to the side that were beaten by Macclesfield Town at the weekend, bringing in Myles Judd, Joe Widdowson, Dale Gorman and Louis Dennis along with a slight tweak in formation, and the boss said it was to give those that deserved minutes a chance to play.
He continued: “I suppose you could still class it as 3-5-2 with players in different positions but what I felt was that there were one or two players that deserved the opportunity tonight. Myles Judd came into the team, Dale Gorman came into the team, Joe Widdowson is back in contention and we wanted to give Louis Dennis the opportunity to get some minutes under his belt as he’s had a tough pre-season because we only signed him late.
“In order to that we felt we were going to be a little bit more compact in the middle of the pitch by having Josh Wright, Craig Clay and Dale Gorman in there together and like I say, for a period of time we looked fairly solid in that formation. You can only try these things and hope you get a bit more out of it than we did tonight.”
Over 200 O's fans made the long trip down to Devon for the tie, and Embleton was thankful for the support.
He said: "I had a good opportunity to talk to one or two of them before the game and it was fantastic to hear and receive their support. The boys have put a shift in tonight and hopefully people have seen that albeit we've come off the last two games very disappointed."
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