Leyton Orient head coach Justin Edinburgh said his side have had a “really good week” as they eased to a 3-0 victory over Maidstone United at the Breyer Group Stadium, responding to two consecutive league losses that had seen their lead at the top of the National League cut to just goal difference.

Jordan Maguire-Drew’s first half volley and a brace from Macauley Bonne after the break handed the O’s all three points over the relegation threatened Stones.

Speaking after the game, Edinburgh said: “It was a good win off the back of a really good week, we’ve had a good week on the training ground.

“We needed to rekindle that confidence within the group and it was the reaction that we all wanted and have come to expect, so a pleasing end to a good week.”

Maidstone, who sit second bottom of the table, were led by John Still, who announced his retirement after leaving Barnet in December, but rejoined the club who he got promoted to the Football League more than 30 years ago.

With Still back in charge, the visitors were eager to make it difficult for Orient and they certainly did so in some of the opening exchanges.

Edinburgh said: “We were unsure of how they’d come and play. Any new manager that goes in is looking for a reaction from a group and I think he got that, there’s no doubt about that.

“It was difficult, I think, for both teams to get a foothold early on in the game but I think once we scored it settled the nerves, it helped the crowd and we went on to win the game, I think we were worthy of that.”

Maguire-Drew opened the scoring in the game, half-volleying Jamie Turley’s flick-on from Charlie Lee’s throw-in past Ethan Ross, and Edinburgh commented further about how it helped his side.

He said: “It settled our performance down, I think we were starting to get a foothold in the game and we were looking like our old self, which pleased me more.

“There’s big pluses today. We had our captain back which assures the group, you can’t replace that. I think the energy and the force of Craig Clay was a big boost for us today.”

While Clay returned to the starting XI, along with Jobi McAnuff, there’s likely to be a key player missing from it on their next outing after Josh Koroma hobbled from the field barely a minute into the second half.

Edinburgh said: “It’s a hamstring injury, we’re not sure of the extent of that, we’ll know that over the next couple of days but reckon we’ll probably be missing him for a couple of weeks. That’s going to be the best we can hope for.”

When asked if new reinforcements would be needed to cover for the injury, he said: “We’ll have to assess that now. We’ve had to bring reinforcements in with Jamie Turley, who I thought was excellent at the back today with Dan Happe. That comes at a cost because we have to find extra revenue for that. If Josh is going to be a long term one then we may have to look at that and try and bring resources in.”

It was announced at the start of the week that defender George Elokobi had been placed on the transfer list after an incident in the match against Ebbsfleet United, and Edinburgh says that he in no longer training with the club.

He said: “George won’t play for the club again. George is not training with us. It doesn’t need to be sped up in any sense, that decision is made so that’s the end of that.”