Ian Evatt criticises the lack of protection for players while Richie Wellens slams a ‘poor’ performance from the referee.
The two sides played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday, Ashley Fletcher with leveller in stoppage time to cancel out Aaron Connolly’s 23rd minute opener.
The O’s played majority of the second half with 10 men after Tayo Adaramola was sent off. Another incident in the game saw Lee Evans pulled back by a fan when trying to take a throw in.
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Blackpool boss Ian Evatt said, per Blackpool Gazette: “I’ll try to be as calm as I can be.
“Look, decisions happen sometimes in football matches that you can’t necessarily control. Emotions run high, and I completely understand the opposition’s emotions because they want to win as much as we do.
“Sometimes those decisions go for or against you – I agreed with it, but it’s their right not to agree with it.
“I thought there was a lot of emotion from the sides that wasn’t policed in the correct way.
“They were very close to the stand here, and you could see there was a lot of abuse from the side and grabbing hold of the football, affecting the speed of the game – without any retribution really, without the stewards taking control.
“I was disappointed by how that was handled. We have a duty to be protected when we’re in the opposition stadium, and in the same we have the duty to protect the opposition when they visit our stadium.
“That’s all I’ve got to say at the moment. For me it’s not acceptable and has to be dealt with. It’s not for me to make those decisions, all I can do is put together our side of the story.
“This is a brilliant football club, and they’ve come a long way in recent years. Richie (Wellens) is a fantastic manager. We shouldn’t be speaking about that, we should be speaking about the game.”
Leyton Orient’s Richie Wellens said, per Guardian Series: “I can’t believe how bad the referee performances are, and I don’t usually moan. Two weeks ago we won a penalty, and the goalkeeper made no attempt to get the ball. He Dom Ballard back, its sending off. The referee doesn’t send him off.
“Last week we should have had two penalties. The standard of refereeing, and I don’t like doing it, is so poor it is untrue. Throwing’s wrong decisions, is actually laughable the standard of refereeing.”
On the Tayo Adaramola sending off: “No. it was a lack of discipline. I done it twice where he gave the ball away in the middle of the pitch in the first half and should make a better decision, a more experience decision just to let fella go. I don’t have a problem with players making professional fouls but where you’re on a booking you have to be careful.”
On his side: “I thought we could have scored a couple more. We got into dangerous areas. Hindsight is great but I think if we didn’t get a sending off, we would have won the game comfortably.”
“We could have had a little bit more control at times, but when they are building with a wing back which is really deep, they don’t cause you any problems.”
“The sending off was a big turning point. Please for Aaron for his goal. I though he was big threat. I though Ballad was a threat. Ollie O’Neil to get through 90 minutes is outstanding. I still though general play we were very comfortable.”
Here’s how fans reacted as Evatt criticises a lack of protection for players while Wellens slams a ‘poor’ performance from the referee…
@AnythingBFC: Wish bondo pushed them back
@SChurchett: As an Orient fan, that’s ridiculous. Embarrassment to our good club. Happy for him to waste his Saturday’s at West Ham instead ✋
@TheRefereeForum: Poor stewarding But that’s probably as a result of awful fan behaviour and no support for the stewards doing their job and allowing the fans to run rampant.
@SeasidersTango: @EFL this needs sorting. The next step is is punching or stabbing an opponent? Will you wait till this happens before taking action?
@Connor_hodgson7: @LeytonOrientSLO Think you need to investigate into this.
@orientgantry: Oh shut up you absolute tool. No he shouldn’t have tugged the fellas shirt and I’m sure the club will deal with that matter. But to leap from a players shirt being tugged to a knifing of a player is beyond belief. You seem one of those who tries to make something out of nothing !
@Garicko7: Embarrassing from my football club. Whoever these morons are give them a lengthy ban. Thick as mince. #lofc
@kieran_wilson24: This is disgusting. The individual should be named shamed and banned
@DeadIyDiangana: Can’t tell if you’re being serious or not 😂 as a neutral if one team if writing to the FA after that game it’ll be Orient. Was 12vs 10 with that ref
@mistry_bhumika: Orient fan, agree this shouldn’t happen and the supporter should be removed from the ground, banter is fine but not this.
@LestahLuke: Typical stewards nowhere to be seen
@VintageBlue5: Ref needs to show a bit more authority here. Kick them out the ground before the play continues.
How is this able to happen at this level?
Absolutely embarrassing @FA @leytonorientfc #utmp | #lofc | #efl | #leytonorient | #blackpoolfc pic.twitter.com/2ehf11sDNk— Anything Blackpool (@AnythingBFC) November 23, 2025
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