Two hundred and ten days after their last home league win, Leyton Orient have won at Brisbane Road again, beating Crewe Alexandra 4-1 to give Mauro Milanese his first home league win as O’s boss.

Gianvito Plasmati headed the O’s into a 23rd-minute lead before the imperious Chris Dagnall added a second ten minutes before half time.

Dean Cox then grabbed the third after the re-start, but Crewe hit back via Anthony Grant. With four minutes remaining, substitute David Mooney finally sealed the points from close range.

O’s boss Milanese made two changes to his starting XI, with Elliot Omozusi and Dagnall come into the side in place of the injured Shane Lowry (calf) and Jay Simpson (hamstring).

Winger Jobi McAnuff returned to the bench after representing Jamaica in the week, along with on-loan Wolves midfielder Jack Price.

Omozusi started at right back, with Scott Cuthbert moving into the centre of defence to partner skipper Nathan Clarke.

Crewe started in a 3-4-3 formation, with Callum Saunders – son of former Wales and Liverpool forward Dean – making his Football League debut up front.

Former Orient loanee Jamie Ness began in the centre of midfield for the Railwaymen.

It was Crewe who made the brighter start, knocking the ball around Orient’s half patiently without creating much of note or testing Adam Legzdins – preferred to Gary Woods once more.

The visitors had a couple of ‘almost’ moments in the opening quarter of an hour but came closest when Legzdins just managed to clear after losing his footing under pressure.

Orient responded by putting together a couple of promising moves of their own. First Dagnall saw a fizzing cross-cum-shot fly across the face of goal, before evading three Alex defenders only to take a heavy touch when one-on-one.

Josh Wright had Orient’s first effort on target in the 19th minute when he met Dagnall’s cut back to the edge of the area, testing Ben Garratt with a side-footed effort.

Less than 60 seconds later, Crewe carved out the best chance of the half when Brad Inman rounded Legzdins before driving across the face of goal where Omozusi cleared under pressure from Saunders.

In the 23rd minute Orient went in front, with the dangerous Dagnall providing the assist for strike-partner Plasmati.

Good link-up play down the left from Cox and Dagnall allowed the latter to float a perfectly-weighted ball onto the forehead of Plasmati, the big Italian guiding a header back across goal and into the far corner.

Provider then turned scorer 12 minutes later when Dagnall doubled the O’s lead. Wright delivered another inch-perfect cross, this time from the right, and Dagnall demonstrated his agility to volley home his fifth of the season from the corner of the area.

Milanese’s side saw out the rest of the first half with relative comfort to take a 2-0 lead into the break.

Orient had the first presentable chance of the second period, captain Clarke rising highest to meet Cox’s corner, only to find team-mate Plasmati blocking his route to goal from close-range.

Clarke then came even closer from the O’s next flag kick, but saw his header blocked on the line by an Alex defender.

The O’s appeared to put the game to bed in 61st minute when Cox scored his first league goal of the season. Dagnall was again at the centre of the move, sprinting through on goal before drawing a save from Garratt, only for Cox to follow in.

Orient twice came close to extending their lead; substitute Mooney forcing a good save from Garratt from 25 yards before Dagnall was denied after the Crewe stopper charged off his line to smother on the edge of the 18-yard box.

In the 70th minute Crewe then grabbed a lifeline when Grant rifled home from the edge of the ‘D’ following an initial block.

With the Railway men pushing for a route back into the game, Mooney capped his return with the fourth for Milanese’s side.

It could have been so different had Legzdins not displayed great agility to make an excellent save seconds earlier, but the O’s broke from the resulting corner and Dagnall released the unmarked Mooney to fire home.

The O's could easily have extended their lead in the dying minutes, but a combination of misfortune and wasteful finishing meant it was only 4-1. However the key number is one: Leyton Orient have their first home league win of the campaign.

Leyton Orient: Legzdins; Omozusi, Cuthbert, Clarke, Dossena (Sawyer 66); Pritchard, Wright (Price 79), Vincelot, Cox; Plasmati (Mooney 56), Dagnall.

Subs: Baudry, McAnuff, Batt, Woods (GK).

Crewe Alexandra: Garratt; Ray, Dugdale (Jones 70), Davis; Turton, Grant, Ness, Leigh; Waters (Cooper 70), Saunders (Haber 70), Inman.

Subs: Shearer (GK), Guthrie, Atkinson, Baillie.

Referee: Stephen Martin.

Attendance: 5,516 (314).