GERAINT WILLIAMS thought Orient's performance at Oldham Athletic was an improvement on their weekend display at MK Dons even if the end result was the same.
For the second time in four days the O's found themselves on the end of an away defeat as goals from Oldham's Deane Smalley and Dale Stephens gave them the points.
Williams felt Orient had started the game well until Smalley struck in the 20th minute but he conceded their work in the final third wasn't up to scratch.
"It's the same outcome as Saturday, but a better performance I thought," he said.
"The only things that let us down - and they are the most important things - were that we conceded chances a little too easily in one box, and then when we got up to the other, the quality wasn't good enough to break them down. That's what has resulted in another defeat.
"I thought it was a positive start from us. We got on to the front foot and pressed them, and you could tell the crowd were a bit pensive and their players a bit nervous,
"But goals change games, and the wide man's driven in, we haven't quite tracked the run and he's slid it in under Jonesy.
"From that moment they seemed to get a lift out of it and it knocked us back.
"The second goal so soon after half time was the killer blow. It's just a long punt upfield, we didn't track the runner again and we've been caught out with a really soft goal.
"All of a sudden we're 2-0 down and it's a long way to come back. We worked hard and never gave in, but we also never looked like we were capable of getting two or three goals to get back in the game."
Orient have now gone three games without scoring, and the manager says that going seven games without a win has affected his team's confidence when going forward.
"Going three games without a goal is a major concern," he admitted. "Earlier in the season we were conceding two or three goals a game, we seem to have got on top of that apart from tonight, but we're not looking like we're creating at the moment.
"It's a bit strange because it's the same people out there, apart from Nicky Adams. He made a bit of a difference for us going forward, but we've got enough out there to be creating more.
"At the moment results aren't going our way and it seems to have hit our confidence on the ball. We're a little bit hurried and what we need to do is relax again.
"Confidence took a lot of time to build up in the period after the New Year and now we've got to get back to that. Results breed confidence and we have got knocked back a bit, but we've got to stick together.
"We've got a home game on Saturday and we've got to get the ball down and play as we have done at home. We're five unbeaten at home and we've got to make it six by getting the three points on Saturday."
