Bryan Hughes was proud of his players despite Wrexham suffering a first defeat during his tenure.
A second half deflected Marvin Ekpiteta goal gave Leyton Orient a 1-0 win in the National League top-of-the-table clash , the victory seeing the Os overhaul Hughes’ charges.
Hughes, who was forced into a reshuffle inside the opening six minutes after Brad Walker suffered a hamstring strain, was pleased with the manner of his side’s showing, but insisted the Dragons needed to bounce back quickly in Tuesday’s visit of Barrow.
“I thought it was close, it was a close tight game, it could have gone either way, like Chesterfield last weekend,” said Hughes.
“I was waiting for a little bit of quality maybe to see who would win it, but it never came at our end.
“In the end it came down to a bit of luck, it (the ball) fell to the centre-back (Ekpiteta) on the edge of the box, took a deflection off one of ours and has gone in at the near post.
“So I can’t be too disappointed with our performance, I thought we worked hard, you could see a definite togetherness.
“We had to reshuffle straight away with the injury to Brad Walker, there were things that went against us, but we will bounce back.”
Hughes continued: “I thought it might have been decided by a moment of brilliance, whichever way it was going, for them or us, but if a ball falls outside the box to a centre-back that is the sort of person you want to have the ball. He has struck it, it was a great strike, it took a deflection, that is what took it in just inside Rob’s (Lainton) post.
“You get moments like that, Leyton Orient are getting a bit of luck like that at the moment. I watched the game at Barrow (in midweek), the first goal was a cross and goes in at the back post, things are falling for them and it certainly fell for them today.
“It is not a nice feeling to lose a game, but I’m not daft enough to think we’d win every single game.
“I knew we would lose a game, it is disappointing that it was today, but it is a chance for us to bounce back, that is the beauty of football, you can bounce back quickly and we’ve got another big game on Tuesday to do that.”
Wrexham were rocked early after Walker suffered an early hamstring strain, Hughes forced to send on Bobby Grant, who himself has just come back from an injury.
Hughes was unsure of the extent of Walker’s blow, but was hopeful of having new signing Jermain McGlashan available after a delay in international clearance stopped him from being included at Brisbane Road.
And the manager was keen to keep playing down the notion that the match was a title decider.
Hughes added: “Losing Brad in the first few minutes with a hamstring was unfortunate, but I thought we reacted well.
“We did have a gameplan with Brad involved, he is a bog focal point to us in the middle, we had to address it and I thought we did. We got to grips with their game, Bobby came in and put an assured performance alongside Youngy (Luke Young) and Akil (Wright).
“I thought the game would get more stretched in the second half, the first goal is always important in this league and to concede the way we did it was disappointing, but we can’t be too disappointed with regards the performance of my players, they gave everything out there.”
“There is plenty to play for,” continued Hughes.
“I said leading up to this game, everyone was portraying it as a decider, I don’t feel that now even though we have lost.
“I think there are loads of games and football to be played, loads of twists and turns, nine games, it is going to be an exciting end, I’ve said that all along, what we have done is give ourselves the chance.”
Read More
The latest on Wrexham AFC
On McGlashan, Hughes added: “Jermain McGlashan coming in, he gives us that bit of pace, we might have needed in that last 20-30 minutes.
“It would have been nice to have Jermain to call upon, but we have got him to come in to it, hopefully that clearance will get sorted next week.”
