Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens slammed his side’s "diabolical" second-half performance as they were beaten away to Northampton Town.

Cameron McGeehan got the only goal of the 1-0 win for the Cobblers at Sixfields early in the second half, condemning Orient to a seventh loss from 11 League One games.

The visitors had been the better side in the first period too but it unravelled quickly after the break, much to the boss's dismay.

“I thought we were good in the first half and should have been two or three up,” he said.

“We missed an open goal and there’s another one where we hit the man on the line.

“But we don’t take our chances and the second half was diabolical right from kick-off. We made poor decisions, the intensity was poor, the body language was poor and the quality was poor.

“They’ve had one shot on target and how we’ve only had a couple of shots on target from some of the areas we found, I don’t know.

“I think we put over 50 crosses into the box and none of our three strikers won a first contact.

“The game changes if we go 1-0 up but at the moment we are not scoring when we are on top.

"It became a bit shambolic at the end and I should never have to change shape.

“We went from a performance where we should have been two or three goals ahead in the first half to a performance in the second half where we were so bad that Northampton deserved to win.

“The players need to wake up and what I’ve said is no different than to what I’ve said to the players. It was diabolical in the second half and we let the fans down.

“We looked like a young, naive, inexperienced team.”

Daniel Agyei missed an excellent early chance to give Orient the lead, failing to hit the target having rounded goalkeeper Lee Burge, before Omar Beckles blocked well from Tom Eaves at the other end.

Orient were in the ascendancy for much of a scrappy first half and they twice went close before the break with Jack Currie’s cross-shot clipping the crossbar before Ben Fox blocked Agyei’s goalbound effort.

But McGeehan's goal, arriving at the right time to meet Jack Baldwin's flick-on from a Mitch Pinnock long throw, changed the whole complexity of the game and despite late pressure, the O's failed to create anything of note.

Town boss Jon Brady was pleased to stop the rot after three successive defeats.

He said: “It was more of a workmanlike performance from us and we needed that. To get a clean sheet and win 1-0 is really pleasing.

“I felt we needed to change a few things. They are a team full of pace, power and athleticism and they’re good on set-pieces so I needed a strong, physical side and that’s what I picked.

“To get a clean sheet was excellent and I can’t remember them creating much, apart from an early chance. That’s testament to the whole team and their work ethic.”