Leyton Orient head coach Justin Edinburgh praised the performance of his side’s young back four, as the O’s picked up their third home win on the bounce against Wrexham this afternoon.

Macauley Bonne netted the only goal of the game in the first half as he rose highest to meet Jobi McAnuff’s pinpoint cross at the far post to net his 24th goal of the season.

But it was perhaps the performance of Orient’s back four which was particularly impressive, with Marvin Ekpiteta being the eldest player in defence at just the tender age of 22.

Teenagers Dan Happe and Myles Judd also put in composed performances as they came in for the injured George Elokobi and Joe Widdowson and the O’s head coach hailed the mature performances of his young back-line.

He said: “I thought it was extremely mature performances from all of them for different reasons. Myles Judd, who hasn’t played for a long time, played on the opposite side to his preferred side and I thought he was absolutely outstanding.

“Marvin and Dan have formed a partnership there so quickly at a young age. Sam Ling was again a rock and his normal self. I’m delighted for them because we were missing a lot of influential players today and that went unnoticed.”

In the end, it was a deserved victory for the O’s, who dominated proceedings for large parts and on another day, they could have scored more, with David Mooney and Josh Koroma coming close to adding a second.

After the frustrating defeat to Hartlepool United in mid-week, Edinburgh was delighted to get back to winning ways, as the O’s continue to build momentum ahead of a promotion push next season.

He said: “We wanted to get a result. I couldn’t knock the level of performance on Tuesday but I think we were all pretty deflated that we didn’t get something out of the game. But credit to the players. Again it was important to continue momentum here and we’re delighted to have got our third consecutive victory at home.

“Once we were in front, Wrexham had a decision to make and when they were playing four up front at the end, it was a different scenario for us then it was on Tuesday and I thought the young backline dealt with everything thrown at them impeccably.”

The feel good factor has certainly returned to Brisbane Road, with three wins in a row at home and a run of just one defeat in seven games in the National League recently.  

That run of form has propelled Orient up to 13th place in the table and Edinburgh is excited about what the O’s could potentially achieve next season.

He said: “It’s a juggernaut waiting to go. If we get this on track, I’m excited about what this stadium could be like if we can get some momentum into next year and achieve what we look to do.”