Orient manager Russell Slade spoke to BBC Radio London 94.9 after his side's 5-1 League One opening day victory against Carlisle at Brunton Park, Slade first giving an update on his injured defender Nathan Clarke:
“He is in hospital, he is not in too good a shape at the minute, there was definitely some concussion there and obviously there was some bleeding as well. He is in the best hands, that is all I can say at the minute, we really don’t know any more than that, but as soon as we know something we will give you an update. I didn’t see the challenge for the sending-off, and I just looked on the DVD before I came to see you and it is very inconclusive.
“All I would say is that the linesman is right on top of it and the referee has got a very good view of it. Fair play to the St John Ambulance and people getting round Nathan as quickly as they did because obviously he was in a serious condition. You don’t like to see that, it doesn’t matter whether that is a Carlisle, Leyton Orient or any player, you don’t like to see that on a football pitch. Everybody has to pull together and react and they certainly did and hopefully Nathan will make a speedy recovery.
“You take any kind of win to be honest, but to be nice and strong and kind of ruthless in front of goal in that second period in particular was pleasing. Because, I think against ten men more often than not you can take your foot off the accelerator and just try to see the game out. But, we didn’t, we kept going forward, we kept creating chances, and to get that scoreline is great.
“Obviously, we couldn’t put Dean Cox on too early because he hasn’t done an awful lot of training, he has only done a couple of training sessions. But, he has taken his goals fantastically well, both of them, they were top class finishes and I am really pleased for him. I thought the full-back [Reece James] was doing quite well against Moses Odubjao in the second-half and the David Mooney goal was probably the one time that Moses got away from him in the second period. He managed to put in a delightful cross for David.
“All the pre-season the delivery from set-pieces has been wonderful and fortunately we got Scott Cuthbert on the end of one again. The conditions played their part today it has to be said with the swirling wind, and situations like that when you have got a weapon like a long throw it is silly sometimes not to use it, and we did and it was successful for us, so that was great.
“I think today is my first win in ten seasons on the opening day, so I have got to take that. But, I feel for Greg Abbott because he is a good friend of mine, and with all the preparation and preparing you do, you can’t legislate for that first-half really. Lee Miller getting sent off, and Carlisle had the best opportunity before anybody scored, and then Nathan going off and we hadn’t planned for that of course. That is football unfortunately, but we got top side of the game today and that was the most important thing.”