Ross Embleton felt that Leyton Orient "deserved" their victory over Newport County yesterday afternoon.

Goals from Marvin Ekpiteta and Ruel Sotiriou secured the points for the O's, who managed to hold on after Jamille Matt pulled one back in stoppage time.

The win was just the side's second since October and their first of 2020.

Speaking after the game, Embleton said: "I think it was deserved today. We had a conversation after the game on Tuesday night and my request was ‘can we not go from being terrible to fantastic? Can we have something somewhere in between?’. I felt that was there today.

"I thought we were good in the first half, probably better in the first half than we were in the second, but what we showed today was a little bit more composure, a little bit more, game nous, when we’re under a bit more pressure we got good clearances in.

"I thought in different ways today, our management of the game when we weren’t playing quite so well was better than it was in previous games but most notably in the first half on Tuesday.”

Both goals had their own bit of quality about them. Firstly, Ekpiteta managing to hold off his man before heading home from James Brophy's excellent delivery, while Sotiriou provided a brilliant finish from Josh Wright's inch-perfect cross.

Embleton paid particular praise to the second, however, as also felt that Orient's moves down the right were helped by George Marsh, who filled in at right-back.

He said: “It was a good move in general. We knew at times today we probably weren’t going to be quite as aggressive down this side of the pitch because of the way we were set up and the type of players that we had on the pitch.

"I thought George Marsh worked really well in terms of the way that he helped us get up the pitch. It was a great cross from Josh Wright, a great finish. It’s a fantastic feeling and I’m delighted for him [Sotiriou] because he worked his socks off.”

After making his debut as a substitute against Port Vale and then starting against Northampton Town in the week, loan signing Ouss Cisse made a second successive start and put in a man of the match performance, and Embleton was delighted with the Malian's display.

He said: “I probably, medically, pushed him a bit too far today. He had ice on his quad during half time, he was stretching him hamstrings in the latter periods and when we felt as though we were almost there it was important that we didn’t risk him anymore.

"He gives us a calmness, he gives us a maturity on the pitch and he really gave us a good platform to build on in terms of going to get the result today.”