Saturday 24 January 2015 20:31, UK
Tony Humes believes Colchester's 2-0 win over fellow strugglers Leyton Orient is a major confidence boost for his side.
The U's moved above Orient in the League One table and are now two points adrift of safety. Humes said: "It's confidence-building to get a clean sheet and a win. "It was what we needed - we needed three points, nothing more and nothing less and we got it. "To come out with a 2-0 win in a big game like that will give us an awful lot of confidence. "The boys have worked hard all week and there have been some new faces coming in as well, which takes a bit of time to adapt, but I thought the performance showed what the players are all about. "It wasn't the best that we've played this season, but we dug in and we got three points out of it. "I thought we started the game very well and we made a great start. "Then Leyton Orient came into it more, but we defended really well. "We scored again just after half-time and needed that good start to the second half." Leyton Orient boss Fabio Liverani admitted his side were in a relegation battle after defeat left them three points from safety. He said: "The positive we can take was the reaction to the goals. "However, this game showed clearly the ambitions we have to have this season. "We have to fight until the last game to avoid relegation. "Last season was great but it is in the past. "This season, it is a strong battle to avoid relegation. "Since I came here, this was more or less the position that we were in and we're still pretty much in the same position. "The only cure to this situation is work, work, work in training and then show it during the game. "It's not easy for us to bring players in, considering the position that we're in in the table. "If we bring players in then they have to be players who will improve the quality of the squad, not just players to add numbers. "We have to find players who will improve the squad." Colchester took a 14th-minute through Gavin Massey, who swept home from close range after Chris Porter had headed on Sean Clohessy's cross and Kaspars Gorkss headed in David Fox's corner three minutes after half-time to double Colchester's lead.