33-year-old reflects on facing Dean Cox, the fitness of Callum Kennedy and Nicky Hunt and O’s young guns learning quickly

Danny Webb admits Leyton Orient will have to keep a close eye on ex-player Dean Cox tomorrow (Saturday) when they travel to Crawley Town.

The O’s make the trip to Broadfield Stadium to face the Red Devils looking to halt a run of three consecutive defeats in League Two.

Orient’s recent trio of losses have seen them fall to the bottom of the division and seven points from safety with only eight games left.

And this weekend they will come up against another former star, who will be keen to show O’s what they are missing in West Sussex.

Webb said: “Dean is a quality player we had here who was moved on and it is a real shame because he did ever so well for the club.

“He is at Crawley now and doing well there and he is going to be a threat, but every team we play against has threats, so he is going to be another for us to watch.”

The 33-year-old, speaking after the 4-1 defeat to Doncaster Rovers, admitted Nicky Hunt and Paul McCallum are likely to miss this weekend.

But Webb felt former AFC Wimbledon ace Callum Kennedy would have a chance of returning after missing Saturday’s loss.

If Kennedy is fit, it will increase the experience in the O’s defence having fielded a very young back four last weekend.

Teenagers Aron Pollock, Michael Clark and Myles Judd played Doncaster with Tom Parkes, 25, the elder statesmen at the back.

“McCallum is a no and Hunt is a no, but Kennedy might play at Crawley, so it’s tough and it’s been like that from the start,” said Webb.

“The youngsters have been thrown in half because I chose to do it and the other half because they are the only players left standing.

“But they haven’t gone missing, so it is tough when you see some of the mistakes we made in the second half, although that is going to happen.

“Yet, at the same time, they need to be told if you are going to learn, you have to learn quickly and I am sure they will.”

Webb reflected on some of the errors which cost Orient last weekend with Pollock and Clark at fault for two of the goals.

The O’s manager backed the pair to improve following the experience and to bounce back when given the opportunity.

“I think they were tiring, but a lot of it is just nous and experience. You look back a few years ago and we had Nathan Clarke, (Scott) Cuthbert and Gary Sawyer and they know how to see out games,” said Webb.

“And that is just because of experience and they have 10 years on Pollock and Clark, so it is nous and experience which we haven’t got. In the mean time, the only thing I can ask of them is to learn from it.”