Ross Embleton was “very disappointed” that Leyton Orient never built on the good start they made in the 1-1 draw away at Newport County.

Ruel Sotiriou’s header put the O’s in the lead after just two minutes at Rodney Parade, but the hosts found an equaliser with nine minutes of the game left when Padraig Among guided the ball home.

Sotiriou’s second goal in as many games looked to have set the tone for another away win for Orient, but they rarely looked like threatening after that goal, leaving Embleton rueing their wastefulness.

After the game, he said: “[It was] a fantastic start. I’m delighted for Ruel again. It’s great when you make a change and you get a goal so early. Yes, I’m very disappointed at the fact that we never built on that good start.

“I thought we had a few moments and a few little bits and pieces here and there but I didn’t feel we did enough to impose ourselves on the game. It’s something that we’ve got to get better at but I think in the scheme of things, if we look at the result and the way the game panned out after that and the fact that we didn’t impose ourselves well enough, to come away with a point I suppose you would’ve taken that on the road in our current situation.”

Orient were forced to hang on in the second half as Newport forced themselves into the game, but Embleton is determined to see the positives in having to do that.

He said: “From my perspective, we have to look at that as a positive. I said to the boys after the game against Colchester the other day that I didn’t think we did the nitty gritty side of the game well enough. So if I’m looking for progression, for improvement from our previous performance, then I have to pat the boys on the back for today and understand that although we didn’t look like a major threat going forward, we did show a the side of the game that I was disappointed with in our previous fixture.

“You have to take the positives and the negatives from it which is what we do in every game.”

The pitch at Rodney Parade had taken a battering in the recent poor weather and Embleton felt that the state of it as well as the performance of the referee stifled a lot of what both teams were trying to do.

He said: “The pitch wasn’t great but I think our pitch isn’t great at the moment, and I don’t imagine there’s too many, unless you’re spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on it, that are surviving this weather.

“We knew it was going to be a little bit near the mark but that was something that we expected and the unfortunate thing is that I’m starting to expect the level of refereeing performances that we’re getting at the moment. It was below par.

“There were a couple of things that happened in the first half that were right in front of the bench that for whatever reason they missed. It’s not just for us, it’s for both teams. It’s really disappointing.”