Leyton Orient have come out with a strong defence against claims their COVID outbreak was caused by ‘completely reckless and amateurish’ actions.

The League Two side had to cancel their League Cup clash with Tottenham on Tuesday due to a number, thought to be as high as 15, of positive COVID tests amongst the first-team squad.

This has seen Leyton Orient potentially lose out on a windfall of around £150,000 in broadcast income expected from the tie. As a result, their most recent fourth-tier opponents, Mansfield Town, have also had to test their players and are awaiting the results.

One senior official at another EFL club told The Athletic they thought Orient had been ‘completely reckless and amateurish’ – something the O’s chief executive Danny Macklin has fiercely denied.

“We have all of our procedures documented and regularly reviewed, whether that’s obvious things like social distancing, wearing of masks, spraying of sanitiser. We follow rigorous guidelines not only at the stadium but on the training ground as well,” Macklin retorted.

With Leyton Orient and the EFL now reviewing the club’s COVID-19 secure procedures, there is hope that the game with Spurs can be rearranged, something the League Two outfit will be pushing for.

“That’s very much our desire and something we’ll be pushing for,” added Macklin. “We believe there’s enough flexibility in the schedule to accommodate the game and subsequent fourth round. This gives teams up and down the land a chance to review all of its procedures as well as its testing regime.”

With crowds no longer returning to stadiums in October as was originally hoped, it could be a bleak future for a number of lower league clubs and the EFL, Premier League and those in political positions of power need to come up with a solution quickly or face losing more clubs to bankruptcy.