Leyton Orient head coach Richie Wellens was relieved to see his League Two leaders get a result against Doncaster Rovers at Brisbane Road.
Theo Archibald’s 68th-minute wonder goal clinched a 1-0 win to put O’s five points clear of Stevenage at the top of the table, after they had failed to score in their previous three outings.
And Wellens admitted the win was more than important than the way it was achieved by his understrength side.
“We had one day to train, in terms of our lack of bodies, and training wasn’t great if I’m being honest,” he told the club website.
“I’ll probably take the blame for the first-half performance because it was a little bit off it, I should’ve changed shape.
“I didn’t want to change my two midfield players, who have been outstanding, and I didn’t want to change the front three.
“Second half when we changed and played three at the back I think it was quite clear in what we were doing
“They played through us four or five times in the first half, even though they didn’t have many shots on target they still caused us a few problems.
“I said I don’t care how we play, get it in areas, put it on them, we just want a result.
“Second half we went long, we scrapped, and against these I wanted to make the game physical, I wanted to make it ugly and that’s where we are at the moment.”
O’s got their noses in front on 68 minutes to the delight of the Brisbane Road crowd thanks to a stunning goal from Archibald, who chested the ball down some 25 yards out and hit a dipping volley into the top corner of the net.
And Wellens had praise for his players, adding: “[Aaron] Drinan was outstanding for 90 minutes, his work rate, his effort, the way he held the ball up, but we did win the game with a moment of quality as well.
“He [Archibald] gets the goal because of his workrate. We asked him to start right wing, because we thought him coming into pockets could cause them problems and pin their back five back, it never materialised.
“Second half we asked him to play left wing-back. His attitude is fantastic, his workrate and he’s one of those players you can trust always to do a job.”
Wellens was forced to partner Jordan Brown and Adam Thompson in central defence, with Dan Happe out injured and Omar Beckles suspended.
And he was delighted to see his side preserve their clean sheet, adding: “I was in two minds. My gut was telling me to change it and go with three at the back, but them I’m thinking ‘we’ve actually got one fit centre-back who has not played for three months, so we’re going to play three centre-backs against one centre-forward?’
“We decided to go with two centre-backs and keep our full-backs narrow to look after our 10s, but when we changed it to a back three I thought we overpowered them.
“We put the balls in areas and I think the majority of the game was played in their half second half and the last 10 minutes conditions ruined it as a spectacle and we’re just trying to see the game out.”
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