Gary Caldwell lauds ‘brilliant’ Joe Whitworth after Exeter win at Leyton Orient

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell heaped praise on goalkeeper Joe Whitworth after his side celebrated a 1-0 win at Leyton Orient.

Amani Richards put the Grecians in front five minutes before half-time.

And the visitors prevailed despite being reduced to 10 men three minutes into stoppage time when substitute Caleb Watts was shown a straight red for a late tackle.

“That’s another clean sheet on the road and a long road at that,” Caldwell said. “The players deserve a lot of credit for their recovery after Saturday and travelling here to be prepared and ready for a really difficult match.

“To get another clean sheet and score a brilliant goal in the first half was excellent.

“I thought the first half was quite an even game. In the second half, we didn’t play as well as we could but our commitment to get bodies on the line was superb.

“I thought that Tristan Crama and Joe Whitworth were outstanding at defending the box and obviously when Joe was needed, he pulled off some brilliant saves.

“That’s what you need, you need big characters to win football matches and we had that tonight.

“Joe has been brilliant since he came to the club, his personality, the way he approaches every game, his mentality to football is first-class.

“When you have that mentality and that positive body language, then things go for you.

“He can be delighted with his night’s work and as a team, we can be really happy. But I still think individually, we can be better.”

Orient boss Richie Wellens was left frustrated following the defeat that left his team one place above the drop zone and still without a home league win this season.

“I thought we were unlucky to lose the game but from our game management we need to be taking more chances,” he said.

“We should be scoring four or five. Their keeper has made a couple of superb saves and an unbelievable one from Brandon Cooper but we should never have given him a chance to make a save with a free header from inside the six-yard box.

“We had moments when we were totally dominant but we still do things that allow them to counter and get into our final third. But our decision-making wasn’t great and we had a couple of people that had an off night.

“We’re at that stage where we have a few tired players and a few others that need to get up to speed. It was probably one game too many for us but we should still be winning that game so we have to lick our wounds and go again.”