While 21-year-old Bees B captain caught the eye at Wrexham, O’s Freddy Moncur played in the FA Trophy for Bishop’s Stortford
Steve Davis praised the efforts of Brentford midfielder Zain Westbrooke after delivering an assured display on his full debut for Leyton Orient.
The 21-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, capped a memorable day by playing the full 90 minutes during the O’s 2-2 draw at Wrexham.
Before last weekend, Westbrooke had only made a couple of fleeting appearances for Orient in their FA Cup games with Dagenham & Redbridge and a 30-minute cameo in the 1-0 loss at home to Macclesfield Town.
But Davis handed the Brentford B captain his chance at the Racecourse Ground and the youngster didn’t let his boss down.
“I thought Zain was good and sat in front (of the defence) well and got on the ball and kept us ticking over,” O’s head coach told BBC London.
“He used the ball very wisely and took a few chances with some one touch football, but when he did have the extra touch his quality of passing was excellent.
“He is there to start attacks and to sit in front of the back three when we attack and I thought he was excellent.
“It was a really good full debut from him and especially for a young lad coming into a new set of players and a new group, so I was pleased for him.”
Orient’s previous regular central midfielders – Alex Lawless and Craig Clay – have both lacked consistency over the last month.
Lawless hasn’t played since the draw at Barrow (October 7) and it led to calls from O’s fans for Freddy Moncur or Henry Ochieng to get a chance.
Instead, the club decided to bring Westbrooke in on a 93-day loan ahead of their first clash with Dagenham on October 14.
After his impressive display last weekend, the Bees midfielder will look to make the centre midfield position his own over the next two-and-a-half-months.
While Westbrooke can expect plenty of minutes at Orient in the coming weeks, one person who doesn’t appear near the first-team is Moncur.
The O’s academy graduate joined Bishop’s Stortford on a month loan at the start of October and has impressed for the Evo-stik League South Premier club.
Moncur’s arrival at the Hertfordshire club has coincided with their best form of the 2017/18 campaign.
Stortford have won four of the seven games they’ve played since the former loanee returned to the ProKit Stadium.
He netted during the 2-0 win over Basingstoke Town (October 14) and also in the 2-1 loss at King’s Lynn Town (October 24).
Moncur also started Saturday’s 4-0 victory over Hanwell Town in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy, which perhaps gives an indication about his future.
Orient enter the FA Trophy at the first round stage on December 16 and you presumed that was a competition where Moncur may get the chance to impress.
But he is now cup-tied and it is understood he won’t be able to feature in the tournament for O’s.
Despite Moncur yet again impressing during a loan, he, unfortunately, looks a long way from the Orient first-team.
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