O’s boss reflects on 2-0 victory at Woking and reiterates his desire to bring in a target man, but feels that is likely to be only business the club do

Leyton Orient head coach Steve Davis conceded Craig Clay is in the forefront of his plans after the midfielder impressed during the 2-0 win at Woking in the National League on Saturday.

A brace from Macauley Bonne helped the O’s earn a third victory of the season and bounce back from their 6-1 thrashing at Bromley on Tuesday night.

Clay was introduced for first-team captain Charlie Lee in the 69th minute and once again looked good in his latest outing for Orient.

Davis, when speaking to BBC London, said: “Craig has been knocking on the door and we know he is a good player. He came later, so Alex (Lawless) and Charlie were always going to be first choice because the majority of work was done with them initially, but Craig slots into that.

“He is very disciplined in our play and competitive and strong and is a player who has got out of this league with Grimsby Town, so he knows what is required.

“I feel he is a great addition and we have the option of playing him in a three or playing him with anybody as a two. Once he gets in it is up to him and he didn’t do himself any harm against Woking.”

The Orient head coach was pleased to see his team react positively at Kingfield Stadium after Tuesday’s mauling.

Davis only made two changes to the starting XI and picked the side which finished the match at Bromley.

He added: “I am not one for making wholesale changes because someone has had an off-day.

“All 11 had an off-day at Bromley, so I could have changed all of them, but I am not one for that.

“A player can have a bad game and on that night everyone played badly, so I felt they deserved another opportunity to put it right at Woking and they responded very well and put it right.”

Clay, as mentioned, impressed for Orient after replacing Lee, but Davis allayed any fears about the fitness of O’s skipper.

The former Stevenage midfielder came off with a dead leg, although has plenty of time to recover ahead of Eastleigh’s trip to Brisbane Road on Saturday.

“Charlie got a dead leg, but he will be okay because he will have a couple of days and we are not back in until Tuesday,” said Davis.

“One or two were stretching at the end because it is five games in hardly any weeks, so I thought both teams showed fatigue at times.

“I felt we finished stronger and capitalised on their fatigue at the end, so we will take a couple of days off now and be back in on Tuesday.”

Davis also again reiterated his desire to bring in a powerful forward in the near future and expects that to be O’s last piece of business.

He added: “I don’t want anyone else, so just the target man is the plan because I need to work within the budget.”