Sunday 2 October 2011 12:48, UK
Leyton Orient boss Russell Slade hopes his side's 2-1 triumph over Preston will act as the spur to kickstart their campaign.
The O's ended Preston's sequence of seven successive wins courtesy of a Dean Cox brace in the closing stages of the first half, coming after Paul Coutts had put the visitors ahead after just two minutes. Lee Butcher was called upon to save Graham Alexander's second-half spot-kick to preserve victory and, although Orient remain rooted to the bottom of League One, Slade took a lot of encouragement from both the win and the manner of the performance. "We seem to wait for the big guns to come before we put in a performance but obviously we are still in a precarious position as it stands," he said. "We need to use that win as a platform for digging in and getting some more results in the near future. "We had to dig in and show some real character particularly in the second period and also having to come back from going a goal down early on. Then we changed our shape to match their diamond and once we started to get Dean Cox on the ball, the little man became a thorn in their side. He's come up with a little header and a great second finish to put us 2-1 up. They were two pieces of real quality that have given us the lead. "Possibly the turning point was the penalty save. Fair play to our keeper Lee Butcher who pulled off a tremendous save, he guessed the right way and clawed it out. We have players coming back from injury and we think that is key to our progress. We have quality players starting to return."
