The O’s manager expresses his disappointment at the suspension given to Liam Kelly and reflects on the 3-2 defeat to Notts County

Leyton Orient boss Danny Webb admits Tom Parkes’ injury looks serious, but was full of praise for the effort his players showed despite suffering a 3-2 defeat at home to Notts County.

The O’s were trailing by two goals early in the second half before Paul McCallum and Teddy Mezague netted to level the scores.

But Jon Stead kept his composure in the 84th minute to score the winner and leave the east Londoners empty-handed and still in the League Two relegation zone.

With Tom Parkes going off injured in the 10th minute, Callum Kennedy played centre back and Sandro Semedo dropped to left-back, which was far from ideal.

“I think it is a very serious injury. Unfortunately it looks like a pelvic fracture initially, but hopefully it isn’t that bad,” said Webb.

“Obviously it is hard to tell the diagnosis straight away, but he has been one of our players of the season in terms of consistency and putting his body on the line.

“Callum had a very sore thigh and not only did he play through the pain barrier for the team, but he went to centre back up against a forward who is 6ft 5.

“There were a lot of players out there against Notts County who went above and beyond and they’ll continue to do that until the end of the season.”

Orient had several members of their squad who played and battled through the 90 minutes despite not being a 100 per cent fit.

McCallum was one of them and wore the captains armband with Robbie Weir, Liam Kelly and Nicky Hunt unavailable for varying reasons.

Webb added: “Paul has gone through a lot. He has been one of our main talismans since signing for the club. He had a nasty injury and went through a lot mentally with that.

“But I feel he is a good leader on the pitch. Even when he was hobbling near the end, I left him on because he’s likely to be in the right place at the right time and score.

“I’m glad he did score and I was even more pleased when Teddy equalised, but when you have a make-shift team, which we had at the end, with 10 minutes to go, that’s a long time.”

The defeat to Kevin Nolan’s Notts County concluded a painful week for Orient in every sense of the word.

Kelly received a six-match ban yesterday for violent conduct after his incident with the Plymouth Argyle ball boy.

Meanwhile Parkes now looks set to miss the rest of the season if scans confirm he has fractured his pelvis.

With Nicky Hunt unavailable for next Saturday due to suspension, it leaves Orient thin on the ground in terms of defenders and experienced players.

The O’s boss expressed his frustration at the length of the suspension handed out to Kelly after he shoved a ball boy on Tuesday night.

“I think the ban is extremely excessive, especially when you look at past cases, but I am by no means defending what he did,” said Webb.

“He has said sorry, but for somebody of his experience you can’t do that, so maybe a three-game ban would have been fine. Did the referee see it? Who knows.

“Plymouth definitely did and that is one of the most disappointing things. A club, who hold such high morale standards, have the nerve to almost criticise and try to make a bigger thing out of something, which for me should have just been a three-match ban.

“For it to go to six, I feel like we are being used as an example to try and stop people doing that and they shouldn’t. Liam should not have done it, but for me the ban was excessive.

“We got that news and ‘Hunty’ is suspended, so a lot of things are going against us, but it won’t stop me setting us up to win games and get people off their seats.

“All of the matches I’ve done so far, from the first minute fans have been off their seats more than on them. Ideally they are clapping a victory at the end, but it is one step at a time.

“We appreciate we are close to the end of the season now, so we need some points, but from where we have come, there has been big improvements.”