Leyton Orient head coach Richie Wellens said his side 'needed to do better' after a 1-0 win at Rochdale extended their unbeaten run in League Two to eight matches.

George Moncur fired the only goal of the night in the first half, angling a shot into the top corner after a fine move, but the hosts rallied after the restart.

And the leaders needed a last-gasp penalty save from Lawrence Vigouroux to deny Scott Quigley an equaliser and ensure a seventh league of the campaign.

Wellens felt his side could have made things easier for themselves, telling the club website: "I thought first half we was the dominant team, we could've been three or four up.

"Their keeper has pulled off a really good save and we've had a couple of melees where we probably should've pulled it back and choose a little bit better decision, more quality in the final third.

"To be honest I can't remember them having a shot at goal.

"We warned them at half-time, this has got two ways of going. If we play forward and play through the lines quickly we can score more goals, but if we slow it down and play in front of them they have to change and put more of a press on against us and they've done that."

Vigouroux denied James Ball moments after the restart, while Quigley also headed wide for Rochdale, but O's had chances of their own to avoid a nervous finale.

A foul on Tyrese Sinclair saw the hosts awarded a spot-kick in stoppage time but Vigouroux dived to his right to keep it out.

Wellens, named manager of the month for August, added: "It proved a difficult spell in the second half for about 20 minutes, then we recovered well for 10 minutes, and the last five minutes it's just two bad decisions.

"Dan [Happe] and Becks [Omar Beckles] was outstandingt and one should put it in row Z and Becks should probably head it wide, but he's probably heard a shout that he should go back to Vigs.

"So, a really good win, but we just need to do better, we should be two or three up."

Jayden Sweeney came into the starting line-up in place of Rob Hunt and echoed the sentiments of the boss.

He said: "We're buzzing with the three points. I thought we started the game well, controlled it, was able to work our pattern.

"But we felt like we let the game get a bit too scrappy towards the end and we needed Loz to pull off a great penalty save.

"And kind of towards the end hanging on when really we should be going three, four and killing that game early doors and making it easy for ourselves."

The win keeps O's three points clear of Stevenage at the top of the table and they return to Brisbane Road to host Walsall on Saturday (3pm).