Boss happy with performance against Barnsley

Leyton Orient boss Fabio Liverani was delighted with his side’s efforts against in-form Barnsley last night, but not the outcome.

O’s had the better of the action at Brisbane Road, but could not find a way past Adam Davies in the visiting goal.

Ryan Hedges and Bradley Pritchard were denied by stunning second-half saves as the scoreline remained blank and O’s dropped one place in the table, three points adrift of safety, as fellow strugglers Crawley, Colchester and Coventry all won.

Liverani said: “The match was good, only the score was not good.

“The performance was very good, the players played a big match and I’m very happy for my team.

“I’m not lucky. We had a lack of precision, we weren’t clinical in front of goal.

“He’s a good goalkeeper, but having said that we should’ve scored, so it’s disappointing. We had big chances and didn’t score.”

The home side settled quickly, with Jobi McAnuff firing an early chance over and Chris Dagnall heading just wide against his former club.

Darius Henderson proved a handful for the visiting defence and glanced a header of his own past the post, before Dagnall forced Davies into a diving save.

McAnuff was denied by the keeper’s legs late in the first half, with Davies parrying a Hedges volley soon after the restart.

Liverani added: “The team is very professional, they sacrifice and work for each other a lot. All players attacking and defending.

“When you defend with all 11 and attack with all 11 you have chances to win and not concede is higher.”

Alex Cisak made his only save of note to keep out Conor Hourihane’s free-kick before Hedges flashed a left-footed shot wide and Pritchard ran on to McAnuff’s pass but saw Davies tip his shot over.

Andrea Dossena’s free-kick drifted past the post before Barnsley substitute Milan Lalkovic saw red for a bad tackle on O’s captain Nathan Clarke late on, but the 10 men held on.

“He’s a very professional captain, a good player, a good man, and has very important contact with the team,” said Liverani of the returning Clarke.

The Italian also had praise for veteran striker Kevin Lisbie, following his loan move to Stevenage.

He added: “He’s very professional. He has good rapport with me, has respect for me. He was a good player for the club last year.

“The team has six forwards and it’s not possible to play six forwards. There’s a possibility to play in League One or League Two, we agreed with the player who is a free agent at the end of the season.

“He wants some games to play so it was better for him to go somewhere else and have a chance to play.”