Richie Wellens takes aim at the referee and his own fans as Exeter City gift Leyton Orient a 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Referee Ruebyn Ricardo was booed off the pitch at half time with the O’s convinced they should’ve had at least one penalty after two claims were waved away.
Exeter went into the interval one up, given a spot-kick for a foul by Sean Clare on Reece Cole, with Jayden Wareham dispatching it against his former club, who at the time, went dangerously close to the drop zone.
A big defensive blunder in the 76th minute saw Orient back on level terms, before Tyreeq Bakinson volleyed home the winner five minutes later.
While relief for Wellens, praising his substitutes and the disciplined performance of the team, he did vent frustration with the referee, and also criticised the fans for booing his decision take off fan favourite Aaron Connelly in the second half.
Exeter boss Gary Caldwell was also booked just before the final whistle.
Exeter City’s Ed Turns handles the ball in the penalty box
The referee blows for a free kick due to Dan Happe pulling him to the ground
Other referees may have blown for a penalty
Thoughts?🤔#ecfc #LOFC #OneOrient pic.twitter.com/8lbMkgR2xl
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Wellens said, per the Guardian Series: “Being aggressive, winning the ball back, we are one of the best in the league. If you keep going and you don’t give in and the work rate is there it is a little bit of luck.
“But we should have had two penalties, and it was never a penalty for their lad. I think it was Sean Clare who hooked his leg and he talked the guy and kicked against his, and I don’t think the ref was very good today.
“The referee made three poor decisions, but we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves. We kept doing the right things and that’s been a development that we needed to do.”
“For example when we played certain away games and things haven’t gone our way, we changed and we drifted and we become open. But we never felt like that today. We stayed in the game and made sure we never conceded again.”
“I don’t remember our goalkeeper making a save. We were pretty dominated the game, but the decision that went against us we didn’t allow it to affect us.”
Wellens also criticised the Orient fans for booing him when he took off fan favourite Aaron Connelly during the second half.
He said: “The fans are booing me for taking off Aaron Connolly. For the way that I play Ollie O’Neill is the best left winger in this league. If I can hand pick any left winger, the league and play exactly the way I play. And they are booing me for that.”
“Around the 60-minute mark I took Aaron off because we need to get the ball back. They were popping it around and we needed to get it back.”
Exeter’s Gary Caldwell said: “I thought the front players were excellent out of posession; Jayden, Jack Aitchison who came into the team, and Reece were excellent.
“For 74 minutes I thought we were outstanding, full commitment the game plan, restricting a team that is very dangerous on transition and counter-attacks.”
He added: “Two really poor goals to concede, we just didn’t finish the game off the get the result that I thought we deserved.”
Here’s what Twitter users said as Richie Wellens takes aim at referee and his own fans after Exeter gift Leyton Orient a 2-1 victory…
@DanAuton2590: Obviously in the minority here but at the time I actually thought the Connolly sub was correct and Richie explained exactly why, a minute or two before he came off the Exeter wing-back skipped past him like he wasn’t even there, he looked shattered when we needed energy #lofc
@West_Stand_O: Absolute masterstroke by Wellens to take Connolly off – completely changed the game. #lofc
@OrientLiam: taking our best player off at 1-0 down is not correct no matter how the game ends, we got lucky today
@LofcLoza: Agreed – I think Connolly wasn’t on it today – he has a bad back it turns out – it didn’t feel like his day today, frustrating dribbles or passes with moves that fizzled out through no lack of effort
@LofcLoza: To the fans that booed RW substitution of Connolly, assume the same ones cheering when OO, who replaced Connolly, got the assist for Bakinson’s winner?!… 😄 Connolly had a bad back too – its almost like RW knew what he was doing and there’s stuff us fans don’t know #LOFC
@Daz00000000: We were also predicable in over using that left hand side, the subs evened that up and made us more unpredictable
@SunshineLOFC: Just about deserved that win.Massive save from Cahill to keep us in the game at @ 1-0 down. An appalling display from the Ref-gave the softest penalty & waved away 2 more clear cut shouts from The O’s. Nevertheless, a much needed 3 points #lofc @OrientOutlook
@ringle_44: Idc what orient fans said, WELLENS substitution master class if I’ve ever seen one and it’s actually paid off #lofc
@daniel_d44: Even though we won, I thought the ref today was horrendous. We probably should have had 2 pens, their’s was debatable, but there was so many bad decisions from him, not just against us. He was staggeringly inconsistent. Thought Lloyd was lucky to get away with an elbow #lofc
@BradJ4mes: This ref is an absolute disgrace , be a miracle if we get anything from this match today lads , not cause of our performance, but the simple corruption of officiating! We won but it wasn’t a miracle , the players earned that 🤩 Great performance , and 3 points that we really needed , and definitely deserve , that ref can go fuck himself, u failed to stop the mighty O’s!!!!!! #lofc
