Italian happy to have break in fixtures.

Leyton Orient have this weekend off and, despite securing maximum points over the festive period, boss Fabio Liverani believes the break has come at a good time.

The O’s picked up a 4-1 Boxing Day win over Crawley Town at Brisbane Road, before following that with a 3-0 success at Yeovil on Monday thanks to goals from Chris Dagnall, Kevin Lisbie and Dean Cox, to secure back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

And while Orient had built up some momentum, the Italian boss feels the enforced 11-day break due to Bradford City’s involvement in the third round of the FA Cup will benefit the lengthy O’s injury list.

“Two wins are important, but they are not everything,” said Liverani.

“We still have to work a lot on our squad and this break is actually quite good for us because it gives us time to recover injured players, so we are quite happy to not play.”

That injury list grew to seven first-team players with midfielder Jobi McAnuff missing Monday’s game at Yeovil with a twisted ankle, though he is likely to return for the O’s next fixture on January 10 at home to Fleetwood Town.

Liverani was particularly pleased with the win at Yeovil bearing in mind the icy conditions which greeted them in Somerset.

“The game was very important for us,” said the O’s boss.

“The pitch was very tough and icy and we had a few more injuries from the weekend, plus Romain Vincelot was carrying a problem.

“I’m very happy for the players, they were very good.”

He also reserved special praise for centre-half pairing Scott Cuthbert and Shane Lowry.

“The central defensive pairing were very good,” said Liverani. “They are improving tactically and if they keep doing that then the good results will continue.”