Leyton Orient boss Wellens makes case for defence

With Dan Happe out with a long-term injury and Omar Beckles starting a suspension, Wellens paired Jordan Brown and Adam Thompson in central defence.

And they combined to good effect to help the League Two leaders keep a clean sheet and move five points clear of Stevenage at the top of the table.

“Excellent at right-back. Obviously he’s a midfielder by trade and he goes and does a job like that,” said Wellens of Brown.

“I thought he looked really comfortable, but we’ll get to work this week. We’re not to get kidded in him having a really good game today, he was really comfortable, no aerial duels.

“I can’t remember hardly any balls in the box, maybe a corner in the last minute, but there will be different tests ahead, which means we can’t play Brown at centre-back.”

Thompson, meanwhile, was making his first start in several months after recovering from injury and also earning glowing praise from Wellens.

“We wanted to try and attack more often that not to protect him and try and get him through the 90 minutes, but it was testament to his professionalism, his fitness,” added Wellens.

“Whenever Tommo is out you never worry about his fitness, in terms of his lung capacity, it’s more his sharpness and match practice.

“He has come through it really well and I’ve said all along, he’s a diamond of a lad, fantastic for the dressing room, and he has come in today and done a job.”

George Moncur and Paul Smyth also returned to the starting line-up after the 1-0 loss at Northampton, before being replaced by Ruel Sotiriou and Stephen Duke-McKenna in the second half.

And Wellens noted the efforts of QPR loanee Duke-McKenna in the closing stages, adding: “‘Smudge’ has had this issue with his quad, so we wanted to make sure he was protected a little bit. The pitch in the last 15 minutes was heavy, so we needed to make sure we’d protect him. 

“Duke-McKenna comes on, we want to see a little bit more of him, he needs to be switched on a little bit more defensively, but when he gets in the final third, he has got ability, so hopefully in the next six-seven weeks, we’ll see him come to the fore.”

O’s managed to avoid any further issues, despite heavy rain making for difficult conditions in the closing stages.

And Wellens is hoping his squad can recover after the busy festive spell to maintain their promotion charge.

“Just heavy legs. [Aaron] Drinan went off with cramp. Heavy pitch, we’ve had six days, three games in a week, now we can get back to our schedule,” he said.