Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens pointed to the impact of the club’s new signings as the League One side played out a drab 0-0 draw against Spanish fifth-tier side Juventud de Torremolinos on Thursday.

In a feisty encounter albeit lacking quality with few chances for either side, neither team found the impetus to break the deadlock in what was a typical pre-season friendly fixture accompanied by a sunny getaway for Wellens’ men.

“In terms of what we wanted to get out of it, it wasn’t ideal because we got nothing we wanted to work on out of it,” said the O’s boss.

“No injuries, more minutes. I thought Charlie Kelman was the best player on the pitch, which is a positive.

“I thought that Zach (Hemming), considering he’s only trained with us for two, maybe three days, looks like a really good goalkeeper. Composed, good size about him. He looks like a real man in goal. Everything he did was with authority.

"Apart from that, not much to take away from the game. The pitch is so small that you can’t really pass. It’s dead easy for teams to shift, to block the middle of the pitch up, so not a lot out of it.”

In criticism of the condition of the playing facilities, the O’s boss felt the pitch might have slowed his side’s progress in getting fit for the upcoming League One campaign.

“My plan was to give a lot of players a lot of minutes, but then you see the pitch and injury risk is heightened,” he told the club website.

“We decided to make changes on 50 and 65 minutes; obviously you’re going to see the lads who played a little bit less run in behind us.

"They’ll have tomorrow off. They’ll have a full day together and a full day on Saturday. They’ve worked now for four weeks really, really hard, and they deserve that weekend.”

The Spanish side looked throughout the game to stifle the O’s momentum, holding on to the ball and drawing contentious fouls to slow momentum, but Wellens didn’t seem to have an issue with the opposition’s antics.

“It’s a culture thing. These are used to doing that, and I actually like it - the fact that they can game manage,” he said.

“But every single foul you get all ten players running up to the referee and this, that, or the other. It’s part of the game over here, and it’s something that, probably, English teams need to do better, but for a friendly?

“The referee; am I going to get fined for this? Don’t think I can!” he joked. “The referee was horrific. Horrific! That’s being kind."

The trip to Spain comes at a welcome time for the Orient squad after a gruelling few weeks of pre-season training.

But Wellens’ men will head back to London in time for another stern test against Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur’s under-21s, who face the O’s at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Tuesday (July 30, 7.30pm).