Ross Embleton pleased with Orient performance

Posted Sunday, March 08, 2020 by PA

Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton was delighted with the ability and courage shown by his side as they completed the ‘double’ over Cambridge by virtue of a 2-1 home win.

Jordan Maguire-Drew and Danny Johnson gave them a deserved half-time advantage but Paul Mullin reduced the deficit to galvanise the U’s after the break.

There was also a welcome first appearance from Jobi McAnuff, who came on as a substitute having been out for the season with a groin problem.

“I said to the boys we don’t seem to make it easy when we play Cambridge,” Embleton said.

“But I’m delighted because I’ve been saying we need to do the League Two things a little better, and whilst I was disappointed with the goal we let in, I think today we showed some real control on the game.

“I was pleased with the overall performance and pleased to get three points over the line as we were under the cosh in a period, but we managed to get over the line.

“My focus has been trying to find a way of us playing and control games because teams do that better in this division. The next phase, now the players know our identity and what we are about, is trying to be more creative, and I felt we did that today.

“We have a talented forward line with lots of energy and I felt we created a threat and opportunities on various occasions. All contributed well in the game.

“It was great to see Jobi McAnuff back on the pitch. He has been a superb support off the pitch in his coaching role.”

Cambridge interim head coach Mark Bonner saw his side lose for only the second time in seven matches since being appointed in January. He insisted that a disappointing first-half performance – including conceding the second goal in added time – was defining for his team.

“That second goal gave us a bit too much to do really,” he reasoned.

“The first half was a challenge for us. It was difficult because we struggled to get going, they made the pitch really big – too big for us – and it was too open a game from our perspective.

“Partly then we ended up too deep, too open, we couldn’t control the middle of the pitch, their rotation caused us a problem, we didn’t maintain possession when we got it and we got stretched. We didn’t hold the ball up the top end of the pitch.

“That said, you can get through that at one-nil at half-time and you have the chance to regroup, so the timing of their second goal made it a massive challenge for us.

“I thought we did all right in the second half. We got the goal and got as many attacking players on the pitch as we could.

“We were chasing an equaliser late on and we were playing with drive and energy.”