Leyton Orient head coach Steve Davis was in high spirits and believes the 2-1 victory at AGP Arena against Bostik Premier Division favourites Billericay Town was what they needed.

Davis admitted it was ‘important’ to give some of the lads a full 90 minutes with just a week until the club play their National League season opener away to Sutton United.

“I thought it was a good workout, we needed that,” he said.

“I think we’ve had some tests, but that was probably our biggest test to date because of the style of play and the sort of player that they’ve got.

“They’ve got some quality and it was similar to what we will be up against week in week out in the national league.”

Ten of the starting eleven players for the O’s played right through the ninty minutes with only one change being made when Romuld Boco made way for a trialist late on in the second-half and the boss admitted that could have been the last chance to give them a full match.

“It was important I got ninty minutes for our lads as they can’t get 90 minutes until we start next week because Arsenal is probably not the game, three or four days before we start the season to do that, so today was the only real opportunity for me to do that.

“From that point of view I’m pleased that they all got through the 90 minutes and I thought they managed the game very well.”

New loan signing Josh Coulson, who joined from Cambridge United on Friday afternoon, slotted straight into the line-up alongside Joe Widdowson, George Elokobi and Jake Caprice in the back four and Davis admitted he was impressed with the new man.

“I thought he was very solid, you know obviously we’re not really sure of the minutes he’s got there, but we know he played a decent amount of minutes previously, but we kept checking on him the last twenty minutes to see if his legs were ok and he looked fine and he said he was ok.

“It was his first time he has met the players today, so I thought he slotted in really well.”