Ross Embleton felt that Leyton Orient’s performance against Crewe Alexandra was worthy of the win, despite them coming away with a 2-0 defeat.

The boss expressed his frustration at the defeat, which was handed to them by goals from Charlie Kirk and Daniel Powell, but saw the positives in Orient’s display, which was a continuation of their performance against Newport County and the second half against Northampton Town.

Speaking to the club website after the game, Embleton said: “I think if anybody has been here tonight and watched the game, they’d have to say that we deserved to win the game. I think we certainly deserved to come out of it with something.

“Am I ever in any position to accept a 2-0 defeat? Definitely not, because it’s disappointing, it’s frustrating. But we’ve come here tonight, a tough place to come against a good team at the top end of the league aiming for promotion, and we’ve put in a performance that, for me, at times was as good as we’ve put in this season.

“[I’m] deeply frustrated because the first goal, I don’t think you can point a finger at anybody. It’s a simple backpass and Sarge [Sam Sargeant] loses his footing. But after that, I think we were the team that were really in the ascendency, we had a right go, the game plan that we put together in terms of how we looked to stop Crewe playing, I thought we went about it really well and created our own opportunities and had a goal disallowed that I’m still struggling to understand why it did.”

That aforementioned goal was nodded in by Conor Wilkinson shortly after the start of the second half, with Orient thinking they had levelled the game.

However, referee Leigh Doughty ruled it out for a foul in the build-up, meaning the O’s never got the catalyst they needed to go on and potentially win the match.

Embleton said: “Conor’s answer to me when I asked him ‘what’s your opinion’ was anywhere else on the pitch and nothing even gets mentioned.

“No one appeals, no one’s hands go up, he heads it straight into the goal so for me it leaves us bitterly disappointed. People can argue and say we lost the game, it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.

“But the game turns on its head. We’re the team that have got all the ball, we’re the team that are creating all the chances. If that goal stands we’re on the ascendency to go and win the game, or come out of this game with a point that I felt we deserved as a bare minimum.”

The last few games now have seen an improved level of performance from the O’s, particularly the win over Newport County on Saturday, and Embleton is hopeful that they can keep that momentum and consistency going into this week’s visit to Stevenage and beyond.

He said: “Do we accept defeat? Never. Do we come out of here content with the fact that we’ve lost the game? One hundred per cent not. But, do we have to hang onto performance? Have we got to hang onto consistency? For me, in the last two-and-a-half games, I’ve seen a consistent level of performance that I feel if we continue to deliver we’ll start to pick up more results that we deserve.

“There’s been a number of occasions this year where we’ve come away from games and the opposition have said to us ‘one of the best teams we’ve played’. I think the Crewe people would accept the same thing this evening and have the same opinion.

“Does it make us feel any better that we haven’t got anything out of the game? No it doesn’t, but it’s about building consistency now, it’s about sticking to a plan where we start to create more chances, where we star to look more of a threat, and keep driving those standards on.”