Leyton Orient manager Mauro Milanese was pleased with Italian striker Gianvito Plasmati’s debut on Tuesday night despite the 2-0 defeat to Preston North End.

Plasmati joined the O’s having been out of the game for several months after leaving the then Serie B side Siena.

And the new Orient manager was happy with his first performance, and feels it could be the start of a good partnership with Jay Simpson up front.

“For eight months he hasn’t played and I knew he was not fully fit,” said Milanese. “I tried to have some power up front with Simpson and I think this couple could work together.

“He didn’t last the 90 minutes in this game and he needs to be get fitter, but I thought he did well.”

Milanese also handed Scott Kashket his O’s debut in midweek when coming on for the final two minutes in place of Simpson, with Chris Dagnall the man to miss out on a substitute appearance

And though apologetic for not bringing on Dagnall, the O’s boss thought it was important to give the 19-year-old midfielder his first professional run out.

“I preferred Kashket ahead of Dagnall because I wanted to give the youngster some satisfaction and get him on the pitch at Leyton Orient for the first time in the first team,” he added.

“He’s been working with the first team for a while and with two minutes left the game was over so we decided to give those couple of minutes to youth.

“I am sorry for Dagnall because he deserved his chance maybe 15 minutes before but I thought that Cox and McAnuff created some problems on the wings.

“I changed Plasmati with Batt as there is three games in a week so they need to stay fresh because we are a bit short of numbers at the moment.”