Ross Embleton was excited to see Leyton Orient’s youthful side pick up a 1-0 friendly win over Bishop’s Strortford and says the players who stepped up to the team did themselves proud.

A solitary first-half striker courtesy of a trialist was enough to get the Os the victory in the end with the boss having to make full use of his squad with this weekend’s Carabao Cup fixture against Forest Green Rovers in mind.

Speaking to the Leyton Orient website after the match, Embleton said the result was what he expected but that he was pleased with how it was achieved.

“It was probably what I thought it was going to be,” he said.

“Once the Carabao Cup game came into play, it meant that this was going to be a game that we had to manipulate a bit. I thought the six or seven pros that we put out in the first-half did it right - Stortford were fresh, didn’t give up a lot of space, made it difficult for us, but we managed the game well and then I was excited to see the new crop of young youth team players come onto the pitch and I thought they really done themselves proud.”

The game was the first Leyton Orient have played in front of supporters since football was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak and it was something Embleton was delighted to see.

“It’s great,” he said. “It was surreal, as it shouldn’t be, but it was strange to see people around the ground and not be able to shake hands and have to keep a bit of a distance, but on the whole, it was lovely to have people back and to hear some voices and some claps when something happens in the game.”

With Os now focusing on their return to competitive action this weekend, Embleton believes this pre-season was a successful one.

“The games we haven’t won there’s been positives,” he said. “The ones we’ve won, there have been negatives to iron out.”