Gary Bowyer impressed by second-half display as Salford beat Leyton Orient

Posted Sunday, February 13, 2022 by PA

Gary Bowyer hailed his side’s second-half performance as Salford moved to within four points of a play-off place with a 2-0 win at Leyton Orient.

Goals by Liam Shephard and Theo Vassell in 10 second-half minutes earned the victory against an Orient side who have not recorded a victory since December 7.

“I thought we withstood a strong start from Leyton Orient,” he said.

“We expected it. They made changes and had players back from their game midweek which allowed them to change their personnel, but we grew into the game and I thought we played some really good football.

“Their goalkeeper (Lawrence) Vigouroux played ever so well. He was good at our place and when he made those saves first half I thought ‘he’s at it again’, because he made a great save from Corey Ndaba and they went down the other end and flashed one across our box.

“Second half, though, I was really impressed with us.

“The first goal is always important, of course, but it was a really well-worked goal, and we had a glorious opportunity to score another shortly after with Brandon Asante, where their keeper made another wonderful save.

“The second goal was a fantastic delivery from Ash Hunter and an excellent header.

“All credit to my staff because the work they have done on set plays has helped us.”

Orient boss Kenny Jackett watched his side continue their wretched run of form that leaves them without a win from their last nine league matches, with just two points collected in that sequence.

They have also only managed one goal from their last 720 minutes of football in the league.

“We haven’t really put the performances in we need and we haven’t reacted well to situations as a group,” Jackett said.

“There was a situation in the second half where Aaron Drinan goes through and unfortunately he misses that opportunity, and from that situation down one end of the field they have gone straight down the other end and scored.

“The frustration for me is that when we went one-nil down we fell away quite badly. That is the alarming thing which we need to address and we have to do much better to respond the way we did.

“It was a poor second half for us. The first 45 minutes we showed promise, the way we approached things, we got down the sides and put good balls into their box.

“Again that is the frustration for us because we fell away very quickly.

“We have to keep going. This is a very frustrating run. We haven’t scored goals, we are missing chances. Performance levels haven’t been high but we need to find the right mix, the right equation.”