Leyton Orient head coach Richie Wellens was delighted with the way his players adapted to the difficult conditions in a 4-0 victory at Barnsley.
Jamie Donley, Omar Beckles, Charlie Kelman and Sonny Perkins scored to make it just one defeat in their last 11 games for Wellens’ team.
Wellens: “The players take all the credit. We wanted to come and play ‘total football’ but a monsoon followed us up so then it is about attitude and playing the conditions.
“You put the ball in areas and try to limit mistakes. I thought the players’ attitude from the first whistle was outstanding.
“I think it’s about being adaptable. We had it across the board. We nullified their threats and we played them at a good time with a few missing. I think we were ruthless in our approach and made them pay.
“The front three in terms of work-rate were excellent. I think for 55 minutes we didn’t give them anything. We had a lot more attempts than them.
“I’m really pleased with the result and the adaptability of the players. They took the game-plan on board and carried it out to a man.
“I think over the last nine or 10 games, we’re one of the most in-form teams in the league so we just keep it going.”
Barnsley boss Darrell Clarke was heavily critical of his team’s performance.
He said: “It was a shocking day for us and those standards can’t be tolerated but the buck stops with me. I’ll apologise to our supporters for that. That was a shocker.
“We have to come back quickly. We’ll be in tomorrow to make sure we sort that out and get that nipped in the bud because I can talk about the game all day long but it’ll all fall back on the same thing. The standards were nowhere near acceptable today and we got what we deserved.
“I’m not one for excuses. We’ve got four or five big players out – we know that – but that doesn’t separate from the standard that we should be setting ourselves.
“I’m not going to chuck my players under a bus. They know my feelings. We’ll clear the air and get ourselves refreshed for Boxing Day.
“We need the next game to come quickly but we’ve got to understand why that was so bad. The conditions are the same for both teams.
“We conceded two goals from set-pieces, which we work on a lot so that’s not acceptable. We conceded a third sloppy goal from an individual error.
“They never really opened us up but we were miles off with our endeavour. We’ll get our heads round it and make sure we put it right at Bolton.”
