Liverani praise for Orient

Fabio Liverani praised Leyton Orient after a 3-0 home win over Oldham and admitted taking the lead gave them an important lift.

Leyton Orient boss Fabio Liverani praised his after a 3-0 home win against Oldham and admitted taking the lead had given them an important lift. The opening goal was scored by fellow Italian Andrea Dossena and the O's manager was quick to heap praise on the former Italy international who numbers Napoli, Liverpool and Sunderland among his former clubs. Orient recorded only their third home win of the season and it was Dossena who showed his pedigree with a fine angled shot in the third minute to open the scoring. David Mooney doubled the lead from the penalty spot in the 24th minute to collect his 50th goal in an Orient shirt, but Oldham failed to accept a lifeline in the 64th minute when they were also awarded a spot-kick. However, O's on-loan Burnley goalkeeper Alex Cisak produced a stunning save to beat out the effort from Jonathan Forte and Orient completed their opponents' misery deep into stoppage time with a Jay Simpson strike. "I was very pleased with the performance and the result naturally," said Liverani. "For once, we scored first and that made a big difference because it boosted the players and gave them confidence and an advantage "It was very important for us that we were two goals in front at half-time because for a while afterwards, we struggled a bit but overall we did well. "We also saw some players coming back from injury, so it was a good day. "Dossena is a highly-rated player and there have been times in the season when he has not been fit, so we had to leave him out, but he had a big desire to play in this game and did very well. "He is a player that, when he is fit, his qualities and ability is unquestionable. "We scored a penalty and since I've been here, we've not been particularly lucky with them. "Cisak is goalkeeper that we chose out of a number we were considering when we were looking to bring in somebody. "He is doing well and hopefully, we will be able to keep him for the rest of the season, but that is up to him and his club. "But conceding the penalty shows that the minimum distraction gives a chance to the opposition to get back into the game, so we have to learn that we must have maximum focus throughout the 90 minutes to avoid this happening again. "It was good to see Jay Simpson come on and get a goal. He is another of the players that is recovering from injury. The injury situation is improving all the time and the future is looking brighter." Oldham manager Lee Johnson admitted he was disappointed with the margin of defeat. "I didn't think it was a 3-0 game to be honest," Johnson said. "I thought that in the second half we were excellent, I thought we gave it a right go and got the penalty of course. "If you don't score the penalty, everything goes wrong. We had to make an early change when George Elokobi had to come off, we had another injury and we conceded an early goal. "I didn't think it was as bad as the scoreline suggests, we could have got back in it if we'd score the penalty. "We played some great football in the second half, stayed really patient and their third goal was by-the-by really because we were pushing forward to get a goal back. "We got into some good areas and won the penalty and won conrers, but we didn't have enough clear-cut chances and that's what I've told the players. They need the courage to provide the quality. "Obviously, you have to stick penalties away. All the players worked hard and I love them all but there was a soft underbelly and the soft underbelly was in the first 15 minutes. It gave Orient the opportunity to hang on to something."