Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens has criticised some of his players' fitness levels and says the squad is not currently good enough to threaten the play-off places in League One.

He also said the team's performances are "cheating" fans who want to see them challenging at the top end of the table.

Wellens' comments came after their 2-1 defeat at Burton Albion on Saturday, which left the O's in 15th, six points off the top six.

"Their two goals are two counter attacks where we can't run back," Wellens told BBC Radio London. "Physically [it was] very disappointing.

"[We're] so inconsistent in our basics and at the moment I think we're cheating our supporters. I think we're letting them down massively.

"Everybody wants us to take the next step and get in and around the top eight, top six in this league but at the moment we're not good enough to do that.

"We're not consistent enough and the fitness levels are nowhere near [the level required], some of them."

Wellens highlighted that transfer deadline day signings Dane Scarlett and Alex Gilbert had not had a full pre-season and he was having to get them match fit during competitive games.

"We can't arrange [friendly] games because no-one wants games at this time," he said.

"You look at Dane in the last five or six minutes, he's knackered, he can't run.

"Alex has been great since he came in, but again he looked knackered towards the end and there's three or four others that have to do their pre-season now.

"It's the only way that we can we can get minutes in the legs and it shows massively."