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Orient Report: "French connection key to Orient victory"	Posted by David Snowball at Friday, February 16, 2007
Report By: Nick Turrell The signing of Alexis Bertin could well prove to be a master-stroke by Dean Wilkins. While Bas Savage took all the plaudits for his performance against Orient, there was an unsung hero role for the Frenchman. Bertin played as the holding player in a midfield diamond and did the job superbly, breaking up play and feeding quality passes through to his more advanced team-mates. In only his second full game for the Seagulls, the man from Le Havre laid down a marker for how that role should be played and, no disrespect to Adam El-Abd, showed that it shouldn't just be about breaking up play, but creativity too. His tireless running and chasing enabled Hammond and Ward to express themselves further forward and gave Cox the opportunity to cause havoc down the right side. Hammond, of course, got in a great forward position in the penalty area to slot home the first goal, and it was Cox, latching on to Bertin's pass, who set up Savage for an emphatic finish to make it 2-0. Big Bas did well to get on the end of another deep right wing cross to head back across goal for Joe Gatting to stab home from close range. And substitute Elder neatly flicked on a raking punt forward into Cox's path for him to run through and notch the fourth. One other performance of note came from Sam Rents, returning at left back, who has pace and dead ball precision which adds a dimension to the team. A final word about Nick Ward. The QPR Aussie looks comfortable on the ball but is a bit of a leg dangler when it comes to anything physical. But if the new-look diamond can continue to play to his strengths, I'm sure it will be rewarded with goals. Labels: League One, Leyton Orient, Nick Turrell