Two of Alexander’s old clubs will do battle at Brisbane Road on Boxing Day in what is an important fixture for both teams

Former Leyton Orient forward Gary Alexander has backed Andy Edwards and Danny Webb to get his old club out of trouble in League Two.

The 37-year-old was part of the O’s team in the 2005/06 campaign who achieved promotion to League One on the final day of the campaign.

Alexander, now player-manager of Greenwich Borough in the Ryman South, is sad to see where Orient are, yet feels their new managerial duo will succeed in east London.

“It’s never nice to see your old club struggle, but I’m sure they’ve put a management team in place now to help them rise,” said the ex-Crawley Town striker.

“They both have good credentials having learnt the right way and done really well with the under-18s.

“Andy and Danny did well with the youth so deserve their opportunity at a higher level and fingers crossed they turn it around.

“It is a club where I spent a lot of my career. I played a lot of games and scored a lot of goals there.

“As much as people think I don’t like Orient, I always look out for them and John Mackie and I are always talking about the club.

“We always say how sad it is to see the O’s down the bottom when they should be challenging in that league.”

A win for Orient on Boxing Day against Crawley would be a step in the right direction for Edwards and Webb.

Monday’s match sees two of Alexander’s former clubs go head-to-head at Brisbane Road for their penultimate game of the year.

The Greenwich boss admits O’s can expect a tough encounter against the Red Devils, who have won three of their last four league matches.

Alexander added: “It is two of my old clubs and I won promotion with both of them from League Two.

“I always keep an eye on them and all the teams I played for because they employed me once and it was part of my life at some point.

“Crawley are on the up. They have a good manager in place and have won a few games recently so all of a sudden they are in the top half.

“It’s a big match and if Orient can go on a similar run and win four or five in a row they will be looking at the play-offs too.”

The O’s ambition since they were relegated two years ago has been to get promotion back to League One.

What has not helped Orient’s cause is several managerial changes with the east Londoners onto their third boss of the campaign in Edwards.

Alexander does believe the right man is in place now and expects it to result in better performances from the players.

“There has been a lot of change at Orient and it is obviously unsettling. It is never good when you have that,” said the former West Ham United trainee.

“Players don’t know whether they are coming or going so to get somebody settled in place would be good for the club.

“Hopefully they can climb the table and if you put four or five straight wins together all of a sudden you are looking at the play-offs and not relegation.”

Orient will aim to start that run on Boxing Day, though Alexander won’t be present with his focus on Greenwich’s home match with Cray Wanderers.