Leyton Orient striker Aaron Drinan admitted it felt good to be back on the scoresheet, despite seeing their unbeaten start to the League Two season come to an end at the weekend.

The 24-year-old was a half-time replacement for defender Jayden Sweeney against Newport County, with O's 2-0 down, and netted just past the hour mark when a Tom James free-kick came back off the post.

And although the leaders still suffered their first league loss of the campaign, Drinan was pleased to open his account, with 166 minutes now under his belt after five substitute appearances.

"I just kicked it back into the net when it come out, so me and TJ [Tom James] will sit down and discuss it further!" he told the club website.

"I'm feeling good. Obviously I was out for quite a while, so it will take some amount of time to get up to where I was last year and the intensity I normally play at.

"That will just come with more games. I'm ready whenever the gaffer needs."

O's were left chasing the game after conceding twice in a four-minute spell, with Will Evans heading in from a corner midway through the first half and Omar Bogle netting from the penalty spot.

And although his goal turned out to be only a consolation effort, Drinan was in realistic mood after the defeat.

"We fancy our chances against anyone here really," he added.

"With nine wins, one draw and a loss today we can't get too disheartened, but just go again next Saturday.

"The 11 games we've played, we probably had more possession, shots than probably every other team we've played, so we do dominate games, we just need to fully take the chances a bit more.

"Sometimes it just happens for one reason or another. It's hard to just pick one thing, it's probably a collection of things, but I'm sure they'll look back and talk to us about it."

Having started the season so well to move to the top of the table, Drinan says O's will take stock this week and look to respond in the best way possible.

They make the trip north to Doncaster Rovers next weekend and Drinan says a win there would be 'massive'.

"The season isn't going to go the same way that we've started, just winning, winning, winning," he added.

"It's not going to go in a straight line, you're going to have these kind of setbacks, these sort of games, so then it's just how you react really.

"I think we've got the players and squad to bounce back and win next week.

"It's a massive game. I think they're going to be in and around it as well so to go there and win will be a massive three points."