Richie Wellens pleased as Leyton Orient beat Tamworth in FA Cup first round

Richie Wellens hailed Leyton Orient’s stifling of non-league giant-killers Tamworth after battling to a 1-0 victory in the FA Cup first round.

A tight tie seemed set to go the distance until Lambs defender Kennedy Digie diverted into his own net 11 minutes from time, ending the part-time National League outfit’s hopes of repeating last season’s wins over Huddersfield and Burton.

Orient boss Wellens argued it was never likely to be the most fluid of games on The Lamb’s synthetic pitch and was impressed with how his players adapted.

“History told us it would be a difficult surface, we wanted control and I don’t think they had an opportunity from open play,” he said.

“They were always going to be in the game from the long throw, long balls forward and the pitch holding up so I was really happy that we didn’t give much away and stopped the crowd getting right behind them.

“Tamworth are good at what they do but our back four and goalkeeper stood up to the task. I was pleased with the performance and the professionalism.

“It was tight but only one team was going to win it the longer the game went on.”

The Os edged the second half having survived a flurry of Tom Tonks long throws in the first 10 minutes, Manny Duku seeing his bundled effort ruled out for offside after 39 seconds.

Tamworth’s best moment came in first-half stoppage time, Stefan Mols’ header clawed over the bar by Killian Cahill to leave boss Andy Peaks pondering what might have been.

“I am really proud,” he said. “There is a lot of disappointment because we had opportunities. We were in the game right until the end and I was disappointed with the goal we conceded.

“They got that bit of luck that we didn’t get. Nothing like that dropped for us and you need something like that to win a game like that.”