Defeat against Cheltenham Town was “tough” for Ross Embleton, despite Leyton Orient’s “negative” second half performance.

After going in level at 1-1 at the break, Orient sat back in the second half and tried to soak up the pressure as well as battling against the wind and rain provided by Storm Dennis.

It looked as though they were going to secure a point until Reuben Reid headed home for Cheltenham with two minutes to go, condemning the O’s to their first defeat of the month.

Speaking to the club website after the game, Embleton said: “It’s a tough one. In the second half, we were a bit negative. We didn’t create enough chances, and when I say chances I don’t even mean chances at goal I mean chances to get ourselves up the pitch.

“We have to respect what we’re standing in front of now. We were under so much pressure. The circumstances seemed to make that a little more drastic in the second half and we couldn’t seem to get ourselves up the pitch.

“It was a case of rather than trying to build to try and get up the pitch, it was a case of trying to see he game through, try to defend our box and try to manage the game like that to come out of it with a point.

“I feel a little bit negative about that in terms of myself and the way we approached the second half, but it’s tough to see another way of how we could have gone about it.”

Orient took the lead in the game through Conor Wilkinson’s fortuitous goal on 17 minutes, but Cheltenham were level by the 18th minute when Alfie May provided an instant equaliser.

Although there was an element of luck to the hosts’ equaliser, Embleton said he was angry at half-time at the way his side defended the goal.

He said: “The first goal, I walk in very angry at half-time because I don’t feel we’re defending well enough in that situation, we’re not marking in the way that we had discussed, and then I see that it hits Josh Coulson on the backside, spins to the back post and the boy takes the goal.

“There’s an element of fortune or misfortune whatever way you’re looking at that, but at the same time we’ve just scored a goal. There’s not been many occasions this year when I can remember a team, when I say gifting us a goal I mean that in the nicest possible way, and I’m delighted that Conor is the one that it rebounds off because he’s worked tirelessly recently and he deserves that goal.

“But we’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to make sure that we give ourselves at least a little bit of a platform. We’re coming away to a team that are very good defensively and we know aren’t going to give up many chances. We get one handed to us on a plate and then within a few seconds we throw it back down to them.”