EMOTIONAL EMBLETON BOWS OUT ON A HIGH
LEYTON ORIENT interim boss Ross Embleton signed off in the best possible way as his side produced a second-half fightback to beat Walsall.
Trailing to a Stuart Sinclair goal at half-time, Orient upped their game in the second half and hit back through Joe Widdowson, Matt Harrold and Conor Wilkinson – who saw red five minutes later – to secure the three points.
“My message to the players at halftime was that I knew how capable they were, not to panic and start to show more intensity,” said Embleton who is likely to make way for a new manager this week.
“I thought we showed our intent immediately when the game restarted, not just because we got back on level terms quickly, but because we had a bit more zip about our play.
“We created a lot more chances and were able to take our rewards from that.
“The red card for Conor was disappointing, I’ve no argument about it, but he has got a black eye which to me means that something had caused him to react in the way he did.
“I must admit I did feel emotional at the end of the game knowing that we are likely to have a new man in charge by our next game. We had a good crowd in here and to send everyone home happy with a good performance is a good feeling.”
The visitors went ahead after 21 minutes when Zak Jules crossed from the left, but O’s keeper Dean Brill could only parry the ball and Sinclair seized the opportunity to scramble the ball in.
The O’s were back on level terms just after the break when full-back Widdowson drilled a 20-yard shot into the net to claim only the second league goal of his career. Then on the hour, Craig Clay won the ball and set-up Harrold who converted the simplest of chances to put the Londoners in front.
Wilkinson made it 3-1 after 75 minutes when he steered the ball into the corner of the net after collecting a pass from James Brophy.
However Wilkinson’s afternoon turned sour five minutes later when he was red-carded for violent conduct after an altercation with Saddlers’ Dan Scarr who was yellow carded.
Saddlers boss Darrell Clarke reflected: “Our second-half performance was not good enough.
“For me, the biggest disappointment was that when we were in control, we were not clinical enough. We’ve not committed a good final ball and then we went and conceded three goals again. That’s six in the last two games and when you do that, you are not going to win football matches.
“We’ve picked up three wins away from home this season. but the reason we are putting ourselves under so much pressure away is because of our home form.”