Wellens criticised his players for playing for a draw against Burton in the closing stages,in the knowledge that relegation rivals Exeter were losing to Bradford, and then celebrating on the pitch after confirmation they had stayed up.

“Clap the fans because they’ve earned it,” he added. “They’ve paid their money all season to come and watch us home and away, and they deserve to be clapped.

“But then don’t be celebrating with your family. Get off the pitch, it’s been an embarrassing season.”

The Orient boss, who guided the club to promotion in 2022-23 and to the play-off final last season, promised wholesale changes at the club in the summer.

“The ones that have got contracts are going to be struggling to get a new contract and then there will be players that are out of contract that we want to move on,” he said.

“We need more athleticism in our side and more character.

“We need to be better in our recruitment. Last year, we went to Spain for our pre-season. I took eight youth team players and about three trialists.

“Every season, we are behind the eight ball and after five or six games we’re always near the bottom. And that’s one of the reasons why.”

However he could give no guarantees that leading scorer and League One player of the year, Dom Ballard, who he excluded from his criticism, would not be sold on.

“Do we want to keep him? Absolutely,” said Wellens.

“But then if someone comes in with a figure that is acceptable to David (Gandler, majority shareholder) and Nigel (Travis, chairman), then we will have to see.”