Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton felt his side should have go on to win the match after what proved to be an even first-half as they drew 1-1 with Port Vale.
Orient had to come from behind to pick up a point against lowly Port Vale at the Breyer Group Stadium.
Attacking midfielder Dan Kemp claimed his first goal for the club, spinning inside the box and firing a low shot into the net just after the hour mark following an early first-half goal from the visitors.
“I would expect so, I thought it was a fairly even first-half and the game looked how I thought it was going to look,” Embleton said.
“If I were Darrell Clarke I would have gone in and tried to pump my players up, get them to play a high tempo, put us under pressure and see how it goes from there.
“He hasn’t had a long time to work with his group and that’s how it looked. They huffed and puffed. We did the same so it was fairly even but we felt comfortable and had a good feel at half-time that we could kick on.
“The main message at half-time was to go out, they felt they would come after us again in a similar manner, and that we needed to go through that and give ourselves a platform to go on and win it.
“I felt it was a foul in the build up on Tunji, the guy head butts him, I felt that at the time. I know I normally say I don’t watch it but I was angry and I have looked. Last time I checked that was a foul.
“We were poor in terms of how we dealt with that once we didn’t get the free-kick, it goes into our box and we don’t clear our line and we find ourselves 1-0 down.
“Then you know they have a reason to run around and fight for something. I felt we really responded well and kicked on. We looked like the better team that should and could have won the game on another day.”
The boss was delighted to see new signing Kemp get on the score sheet and praised the impact of having Johnson back in the starting line-up.
“When Dan came here it was something him and I spoke about a lot that he needs to add goals and assists to his game.
“He’s come in and had the games that he has, but I felt today (Saturday) that once he got on that side of the pitch that he was going to cut inside and create opportunities.
“I’m delighted that he got himself on the scoresheet with a very nice finish.”
He added: “We were saying on the bench that when it dropped to Dan we have expectations of smashing them ones in the goal. It sort of dropped across his body and he just couldn’t quite bring it around.
“It was a difficult finish, but what you do see is that is Danny Johnson, he gets into those positions.
“Much needed time on the pitch for Dan and he looks like he’s come through it well.”
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