RUSSELL SLADE hailed the quality of Matthew Spring's audacious 60-yard goal in Orient's 3-1 win over Cambridge United.

The O's midfielder, a summer arrival from Charlton Athletic, scored his side's second goal in the pre-season triumph - and it was one to remember.

Spring spotted goalkeeper Simon Brown off his line and sent the ball over his head and into the net from inside his own half and his manager had special praise for the strike.

"It was a goal of absolute quality," he said. "He must have been five yards inside his own half and I wondered what he was doing!

"He's obviously seen the goalkeeper off his line and it was exquisite. It was worth paying your money to see that today - it was a great goal."

Slade was happy with the result and workout, especially as he had taken the opportunity to utilise those players who hadn't featured as heavily as others in pre-season.

He continued: "I mixed and matched a little bit today because we had players who still needed minutes on the pitch before the start of the season.

"It wasn't quite as flowing as it has been in previous games, and perhaps we weren't quite as organised or pass the ball as we've done in previous games.

"But we've learned how to win football matches and that's what it's all about."

Another positive was Jonathan Téhoué's first goal since his comeback from injury and the O's chief hopes it will act as a timely boost for the Frenchman..

He said: "I think it's an important goal for Jonathan and I think it'll give him a buzz. The idea was to give him 45 minutes, but I think the goal got him going again and we got another 15 minutes out of him.

"It's good news for everybody."

The one negative of the afternoon was a nasty-looking injury to young O's forward Jake Argent. Slade, however, is hopeful the injury isn't as bad as it looked.

He explained: "It's a knee injury that Jake's suffered. We don't think it's as bad as we first thought, but we'll leave that in the capable hands of the physio and we'll wait and see."

And with just seven days to go until the start of the new campaign, Slade says his team is all but ready, although he does still wish to bring in a new left back to cover for Charlie Daniels' injury.

"We're almost there," he added. "I've got one or two headaches, particularly in the left back position.

"I'd hope to bring one in before we play Yeovil next week, but by and large we're ok, ready to go and looking forward to it."