Richie Wellens promised Leyton Orient would continue to fight for a Sky Bet League One top-six berth, but questioned if they are ready for the play-offs after a 1-0 home victory over Stevenage.
Charlie Kelman’s 12th-minute goal proved enough to help the O’s register back-to-back wins and move within two points of sixth-placed Huddersfield.
Kelman’s smart header from Sean Clare’s cross was Orient’s only shot on target after they failed to build on a strong start and they were indebted to a fine late double save from Josh Keeley to earn a precious three points, which had also been the case in a 2-1 victory at Blackpool on March 15.
Wellens acknowledged: “We’ve not been great. Football is mad. The last two games have been the two worst performances we’ve had all season and we’ve got six points.
“I thought first 25 minutes we were by far the better team and passed the ball, some good moves and then we just stopped playing.
“I think you can see little signs with this group that maybe we’re not quite ready to get into the play-offs yet because we get a little bit worried and we get a little bit scared when we go ahead and stop playing.
“Oh yeah, we’ll be fighting but we’re a developing club. No one expected us to be in and around this position and we’re massively overachieving.
“You only have to look at our subs. We’re bring on four subs with an average age of 20 years old. I also think injuries have impacted our performance.
“As a coach, you have 46 league games and want a lot of them to look really pretty but it will come down to four or five of those games where you’re not bothered by performance and want the result. Today was one of them.”
Stevenage improved after a slow start with Dan Kemp behind most of their brightest moves, but the former O’s player was thwarted by Tottenham loanee Keeley in a crucial double save in the 90th minute.
Kemp firstly teed up substitute Harvey White, who had a low effort clawed away by Keeley before the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international gathered the subsequent cross-cum-shot from Kemp.
There was still time for Keeley to pounce on Elliott List’s weak stoppage-time shot to ensure Orient moved up to eighth, while Stevenage stay 13th and have only one victory from their last six matches.
A frustrated Alex Revell said: “Really disappointed with the result.
“Second half we were much better, we won the ball, played some good football.
“Ultimately it is about chances and they took their one chance. We didn’t take ours and 11 shots away from home against three probably shows the game really.
“When you get in those moments, you get numbers in the box and at the end Jake Young has put a brilliant delivery into the middle of the six-yard spot and we haven’t got anyone attacking it.
“In that moment you need people to sacrifice themselves and connect to get a well-earned point at least.”
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