Richie Wellens felt Leyton Orient let down their fans after their rearranged game with Lincoln ended in a late 1-0 defeat.

Orient had been leading 1-0 in the original League One fixture on October 3 when the match was abandoned after 82 minutes due to a medical emergency. O’s fan Derek Reynolds suffered a cardiac arrest and was treated pitchside before he was later pronounced dead.

This time around, Ethan Hamilton struck in the 89th minute to earn a first win for new Lincoln boss Michael Skubala, and the performance left Wellens downbeat.

“It was a really disappointing night for us,” he said.

“I thought first half we were OK but just passed the ball for the sake of it and never got enough crosses into the box. We should have taken the lead with Joe Piggott through a header.

“Second half we were really, really poor.

“It wasn’t the performance that gave justice to the events which took place the last time we played them.

“And for our supporters to pay twice for that is not good enough and not acceptable from our players and the staff.

“Second half we just drifted and we could have won it and probably should have won it.

“Overall it was probably one of the most disappointing games I’ve had since I’ve been at the club.

“The squad is being tested at the moment (because of injuries) but no excuses we were poor tonight and we lacked energy.”

The visitors were indebted to goalkeeper Lukas Jensen for a couple of outstanding saves from Brandon Cooper and Ruel Sotiriou in either half that protected their clean sheet.

Skubala, who was appointed last week and was overseeing his second match in charge, praised his team’s display.

“I thought the lads were brilliant to a man,” Skubala said.

“It’s not an easy place to come here, particularly after the battle we had Saturday at Stevenage and we had to dig really deep and weather a few chances so I’m really proud of them.

“We tweaked a few things at half-time to try and give us more control in the game. I felt we didn’t have enough in the first half but second half we started to threaten and cause more problems for the opposition.

“We freshened things up with our substitutions and stopped them landing the ball in the box with all the players working hard.

“Our goalkeeper made a huge save for us at 0-0 which kept us in the game and we know he’s got that big performance. His kicking was excellent too but overall, it was a great team performance and everyone put in a team shift.

“It was a great finish for the winning goal from Ethan Hamilton.

“I said to the players we have to be sacrificial at times. Be good team mates to each other. That is a key part of a team’s journey.”

Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens was delighted to secure a 2-1 win against Reading after a difficult week for the club.

The O’s match with Lincoln on Tuesday was abandoned when lifelong supporter Derek Reynolds was taken ill and died later that evening.

Wellens had seen his team dominate the early exchanges against Reading to deservedly take a first-half lead through a Jordan Brown piledriver before Tyler Bindon equalised ahead of the interval.

But the points were secured in the 90th minute by George Moncur, who stepped off the bench to apply the final touch after a goalmouth scramble following a corner.

“It was a really emotional afternoon and I thought the club as a whole today made it a brilliant day to remember a lifelong supporter and someone who worked for the football club,” Wellens said.

“It’s been a very tough 72 hours. Finding that motivation to get going has been difficult

“We had to work hard in the end. We were totally dominant in the opening 20 minutes. We created loads of chances, we hit the crossbar and we found it easy to play round them but then they changed it when we scored and they blocked us up a bit.

“We’re still an emerging side, naive at times and tactically we have to get better while the game is happening but I can’t be prouder of the players as our points return has been really good.

“Jordan Brown epitomised what we’re all about. He was excellent today; picked pockets, kept possession and technically he’s a very good footballer which was demonstrated from the goal he scored.”

Reading remain in the relegation zone and manager Ruben Selles acknowledged that his side need to address their shortcomings.

“We competed well but it’s another moment late like the Exeter game where we lose the game in a situation we could have easily solved,” he said.

“We came here to compete and we were in the game. We came back after the first goal but we need to improve.

“Our pressure was not quick enough at the start of the game so I made a couple of modifications and we started to defend better. We went back to our system we know to get more pressure on the ball and it stopped the crosses coming in from the opposition.

“We lost Sam Hutchinson before the match as he was feeling his hip. He could run but not kick the ball so we had to made a change and brought in Charlie Savage.

“There is always pressure in football but there has been a lot of things out of our modifications of building the team but I will not make excuses. We came here to compete.”