Third time lucky for Liverani

Leyton Orient boss Fabio Liverani was relieved to have made it third time lucky as his side beat Crawley 4-1 at Brisbane Road.

The O's manager found the winning formula in only his third match in charge to give the home supporters a Christmas gift. Liverani's side had managed just one home league win this season, but the Italian - the fourth man to take charge of the club's playing affairs this season - saw the Londoners romp to victory to lift themselves out of the relegation places, while Crawley slumped into the drop zone. Liverani expressed his delight with the result, saying: "I am very pleased, especially for the players, but we have done nothing yet, although this win will boost our confidence for the next game. "The defeat at Barnsley last week really disappointed me, but the reaction of the players and regardless of the fact that we scored four goals, they showed that they really wanted to win this game. They were determined and aggressive from the start. "We had Chris Dagnall available after his recent suspension and that has proved costly to us. "Slowly we are getting players back from injury into the squad although we picked up three more injuries. "Now we have a massive game at Yeovil on Monday. We will see on Tuesday how important the win against Crawley was psychologically. "I do think this win was very important for the players though. It's they that are on the pitch and hopefully, they will show that the win against Crawley was so important." Orient, with only one league win in their previous eight matches, took the lead through Dean Cox after six minutes. But the visitors were back on level terms when former O's man Jimmy Smith netted from close range. Cox then turned architect to provide a cross for Chris Dagnall to restore the home side's lead with 19 minutes played. Orient lost the services of goalkeeper Adam Legzdins with 20 minutes remaining due to a shoulder problem, but his replacement Gary Woods had little to concern him as the O's pressed forward in search of a third goal. That came in the 87th minute through David Mooney before Dagnall notched his second of the game in added time. Crawley boss John Gregory reflected on his side's latest setback in losing run that was extended to eight games. He said: "I think the score flattered Orient a bit because at 2-1, we were still in the game. "They had two efforts in the first half and scored from them both. There was some poor defending from us. "In the last 15 minutes or so of the game, we had to make one or two changes and the final result was very disappointing. "We are pretty thin on the ground with numbers at the moment and a couple of our players are short of match fitness. "But the game was still there for us to get back into it at 2-1 and we looked comfortable. "But obviously the third goal has killed us after we gave the ball away in midfield when we were in possession. "We made too many errors but we have to pick ourselves up. "If we don't realise that we are in a relegation battle by now, that result will certainly make everyone in our football club think about the enormity of where we are in the league and what we need to do about it."