Leyton Orient assistant coach Danny Senda feels the side are being too naive and allowing their opponents back into matches as they fell to a third consecutive defeat.

Two goals in two minutes from Wes Hoolahan and Paul Mullin sealed a 2-1 victory for Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium.

It was the third 2-1 defeat for the O's and the assistant admitted they must start stamping out the current mentality among the squad.

“It is unfortunately, I felt that we started the first-half on the front foot, we gained territory and we put them under a lot of pressure. We were nullifying their threat, everything we spoke about before the game and in the lead up to the game,” Senda insisted.

“But it was another second-half of naivety, again we talk about what we need to do to approach the second-half, but we don’t do it and that’s really simple.

“If you don’t do it with teams that have good players, goal scorers, then you get punished at any level of football.”

He added: “It’s a naivety that has crept in and we need to get rid of it very quickly.”

Captain Jobi McAnuff set out in-form striker Danny Johnson for his 16th goal of the season in the 23rd minute to give the O's an early lead.

Senda expects nothing less from those two but insisted it is a team game.

East London Advertiser: Leyton Orient captain Jobi McAnuff celebrates as his effort is deflected in against Crawley TownLeyton Orient captain Jobi McAnuff celebrates as his effort is deflected in against Crawley Town (Image: Gavin Ellis/TGS Photo)

“We get those performances from those two, we know what Danny Johnson is about, it’s not a secret to the division, Jobi is also not a secret for what he brings us, energy, effort and enthusiasm.

“We know what those two players bring, but it’s a collective thing, and we need to be better as a team.

“We need to be able to see games out, first-half we go 1-0 up and deservedly so in my opinion, and then in the second-half we allow teams back into the game and it’s an upward battle to try getting ourselves back into a game that we should have never been fighting for.”

Head coach Ross Embleton still made the substitutions from watching on at home while currently in self-isolation.

“I must say the manager made the decisions for the substitutes, the manager had a line into the stand, which meant Martin Ling was able to come down and feed some of the messages that were coming from the manager.

“We can talk about formations, players coming onto the pitch, but if we don’t apply ourselves whether that is the players on the side or the players on the pitch then you don’t win football matches.”