Leyton Orient assistant manager Kevin Nugent praised match winner Dean Cox after he battled through illness to fire the O's to a 1-0 FA Cup win over Walsall.

Orient were missing Scott Cuthbert after he was ill overnight while winger Cox was also under the weather. But the winger netted the decisive goal to send the hosts into tomorrow's third round draw.

Nugent was standing in for Russell Slade after the unwell manager was forced to watch the game from his flat in the corner of the stadium. 

Nugent said: "Dean seemed to be fine when he came in but just prior to the game got really sick and ill.

“He wasn’t in a good state at all and I asked if he could come and do a bit for us. He said he’d do his best but he was on his death bed really to be honest.

"He’s got a goal which won us the game which is fantastic and he deserves credit for that because sometimes you don’t see that players are playing with illness, but the whole lot worked really hard and I’m really proud of them."

Striker David Mooney was sent off in injury time for kicking out at an opponent which was the only sour note of the match. 

Nugent said: "We dug in towards the end but unfortunately Moons has got sent off which is disappointing.

“I haven’t actually seen it yet. It’s happened and we’ll get on with it and see what happens from there. Obviously it looks like he won’t be available for us but we had players not available for us today as well and others have come in and performed fantastically well."