Leyton Orient head coach Richie Wellens said he would 'sign a new contract tomorrow' following his side's 2-0 defeat at Wimbledon.

First-half goals from Ayoub Assal and Harry Pell condemned the League Two leaders to only a second in 17 outings this season, but they remain three points clear of Stevenage at the top of the table.

And Wellens was keen not to panic, claiming his side were already ahead of schedule.

"We're at the first stage. I'm excited, I love this football club," he told the club website.

"I'm excited about it, I'll sign a new contract tomorrow because I love it and I want to stay here because I know where we can get to.

"And we will get there. The fans will go home today disappointed but I love this club and we'll get there.

"But we have to take our time. We can't over-react, we're at a process, and when we came in if we would've said now, we're sitting on 26-27 points and we're seventh or eighth, we would've gone 'yeah, we'll take it'."

Wellens also reacted to recent comments made by Stevenage rival Steve Evans, ahead of his side's trip to lowly Harrogate Town this weekend, adding: "Let's not get carried away. I see an interview that Steve Evans done the other week saying we're this year's Forest Green. Nonsense.

"Forest Green have been in a process for four, five years under Mark Cooper, really good team, get in the play-offs, miss out on the play-offs, get in the play-offs, miss out, and then Rob Edwards goes in and finishes the job off and gets them promoted."

O's began well at Plough Lane, as they looked to bounce back from their last-gasp FA Cup exit at Crewe, with Paul Smyth seeing a shot blocked and Tom James denied by Nikola Tzanev.

But Assal's deflected effort put the hosts ahead on 19 minutes, before Pell found the top corner just past the half-hour mark to double the lead.

And Jordan Brown saw a second-half 'goal' ruled out for offside as Wellens added: "I thought we started well, the first five minutes, we got to the byline and got in their box.

"There was too many ricochets in their box, balls bouncing around and we never got on the end of it.

"But then we concede two goals in a short period of time where we allow a right-footed left winger to come inside on his right foot and then we don't track a midfield runner, so disappointing.

"I thought second half we was the better team, we were pushing, and we get the goal back but the linesman decides to disallow it. First half, we didn't win any duels.

"It's a big game for them and it's a compliment to us, that they think it's a big game and there's a big crowd [7,994] here and the crowd was at it, fair play to them, there was a good atmosphere for them.

"There's two styles of football, our style and their style which is different to our style and for the first half we wanted to play like they played, which is stupid.

"We need to be better on the ball but second half I thought we was better. Sometimes you have to go through these nights to get where you want to go and we was never going to be losing one or two games this season, we have to lick our wounds and go again Saturday."