Richie Wellens praised Leyton Orient after finally recording their first home win of Sky Bet League One in the 1-0 victory over Rotherham.
Orient had failed to win any of their previous five league encounters at Gaughan Group Stadium, but a second-half header by central defender Dan Happe from a set-piece proved decisive to end the barren run at the sixth time of asking.
“The players have been brilliant,” Wellens stated. “You could feel the edginess at times, but there is never any sense of panic from the players. They grounded out the result against a good team with some good players.
“It was a really scrappy poor game first 20 minutes, but we wanted to make sure we built our way into the game and we fought and scrapped, and played some decent stuff towards the end of the first half.
“Regarding some of the weaknesses I saw at Northampton on Saturday, I felt Darren Pratley could come into the side and cut out those mistakes out, and tonight he did a good job in terms of stopping (Joe) Powell who is a good player we tried to sign in the summer.
“It was 50-50 game tonight and could have gone either way so, again, I take my hat off to the players who showed the composure and spirit to fight.
“I’ve not been happy the last few weeks because we should have got more points.”
Rotherham boss Steve Evans berated his side’s shortcomings in key areas.
“We controlled possession and we got down the sides of them,” he reflected.
“But I sound like a broken record because if you don’t defend properly, which we didn’t for their goal, and we get in the final third but you don’t have that quality then you pay the price.
“I thought we were stronger than the home side in certain periods of the game, but it’s pivotal moments and Zak Jules gets hauled to the floor and we don’t get a penalty.
“We commit second half and changed shape to be more offensive in the wide areas and we make a fantastic chance.
“You can’t make a better chance than that in League One and then the player that misses that chance lets his marker go from a set-play.
“We miss a sitter and it is what it is and we have awful defending from a certain player.
“We’re trying to find a way into the game, but when you have Leyton Orient shooting from 35 yards at home then you’re relatively happy.
“We were missing massive players and four big summer signings tonight. We won’t get overjoyed when we’re winning, so we won’t be negative now.”
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