Richie Wellens was full of praise for his Leyton Orient side after watching them defeat Mansfield with a superb first-half display.
The O’s took maximum points with a 3-0 League One win over hopelessly out-of-form Mansfield to move to within two points of a play-off position.
Jordan Brown, debutant Randell Williams and highly-rated Ethan Galbraith were on target with goals before the interval as the Stags were left reeling before regaining some defensive composure after the break.
“The biggest credit tonight was there was no hangover from Saturday’s cup game (against Manchester City),” Wellens said. “That was the biggest worry and the specific reason I selected players who had no emotional attachment to that game.
“We thought it was important to give Charlie Kelman a rest because the kid has been running into the ground week after week.
“Both debutants were excellent. Randell Williams was rewarded with a great goal and Rarmani Edmonds-Green was really impressive too.
“Overall it was a brilliant team performance though.
“Ethan Galbraith was outstanding. He is a Premier League player in the making and younger players who watch him can see how strong he is in his running.
“We had a meeting with the players as the upcoming schedule is going to be tough so we need every single player and they will get opportunities in the months to come.
“The atmosphere at the training ground is really strong and positive.”
Mansfield boss Nigel Clough praised the opposition, saying: “Leyton Orient were very good, they are on a very good run, we are low on confidence and it was a bit of a mismatch at times.
“It was probably a case of the league’s most confident side coming up against the league’s least confident side at the moment.
“We talked about not conceding a goal early on and that was the most disappointing thing, their first goal tonight following a corner.
“It was the same way we conceded last Friday night and it cost us the game. And it played a large point in contributing to our defeat tonight.
“The ball somehow found it’s way into the back of the net and that gave them a huge lift but don’t under-estimate how well they played in the first half-hour of the game – that’s the best we’ve come up against.
“We were out of touch in the first half-hour but then I thought we had little spells when we could have got back into it. At 2-0 we had a couple of good shots and even when it went to 3-0, we kept going.
“It may seem strange but at 3-0 and not to go under gives us a certain amount encouragement that we’ll be OK. That might seem very strange coming after our seventh-straight defeat but that attitude was very commendable.”
