Liverani pleased to see home hoodoo broken
Leyton Orient boss Fabio Liverani was delighted to see his side beat League One play-off hopefuls Oldham and claim their first home win of 2015.
Andrea Dossena gave the hosts a flying start at Brisbane Road, netting after only three minutes, and David Mooney doubled the advantage from the penalty spot with his 50th goal for the club.
Former Dagenham & Redbridge striker Rhys Murphy won Oldham a penalty in the second half, but Alex Cisak saved Jonathan Forte’s effort and Liam Kelly hit the crossbar from the rebound.
Dean Cox played in substitute Jay Simpson to add a third for O’s in stoppage time, to seal a first home win in five matches.
Italian Liverani said: “I’m very pleased with the performance and the result.
“It was an occasion unlike other games when we scored first and this made a difference because it improves the mood of the players and gives an advantage.
“Finishing the first half 2-0 up was very important. Because of our situation we struggled a bit, we had to play with a lot of sacrifices although we did well and recovered so it was very good.”
Liverani was particularly pleased to see fellow countryman Dossena net his first goal for the club – and first since hitting the target for former club Liverpool in a 4-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2009 – and paid tribute to the full-back’s attitude.
“Dossena is a highly rated player,” added Liverani.
“There were moments in the season when he was not fit or I decided to leave him out, but he had a big desire to play this game and played it very well.
“He is a player when fit whose qualities and abilities are not questionable.”
Mooney made it 2-0 with his eighth of the season, after Jobi McAnuff had been fouled in the box, and Liverani was grateful to see his side get the better of things from the spot after Cisak saved Forte’s attempt.
But he was also concerned that his side had switched off when 2-0 up and given Oldham a potential way back into the match.
He added: “So far since I have been here we have not been particularly lucky with penalties to us, but this is football.
“In England it is more tough, but we go on and see what happens.
“Cisak is a goalkeeper that we choose out of many that we were considering because we want a keeper with those charactersitics.
“He’s doing well and hopefully he will keep doing well for the rest of the season, but with regards to the penalty this is another demonstration of the minimum distraction we conceded a chance to the other team to get back into the game again.
“We have to have maximum focus during the 90 minutes to avoid this happening again.”
Victory leaves Orient two points adrift of Colchester and safety, but with a game in hand on the Essex club ahead of their trip to Walsall next weekend.
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