Paul Tisdale has reserved special praise for his defensive unit after seeing Exeter City claim an empathic win against Leyton Orient.

The Grecians ended their opponents' perfect start to the campaign in impressive fashion by recording a 4-0 victory.

Tom Nichols tucked away twice from the penalty spot, while Alex Nicholls and David Wheeler also found a way through against the early League Two pacesetters at St James' Park.

Despite the one-side nature of the scoreline, Tisdale was most impressed by the way his side held back Orient throughout the 90 minutes.

"That's the crazy thing about football," he told BBC Sport. "They did most of the attacking, we did most of the defending, but we looked most likely to score. Most of my thoughts and praise will go to my defenders, and that's the irony of football.

"Jordan Tillson and Troy Brown did particularly well as unit, they saw the danger, they challenged, they had a real focus on defending.

"The midfield in front of them, who you'd ordinarily judge on their footballing ability, did well in covering danger areas, making tackles and cutting off the dangerous situations."

Exeter occupy sixth place in the league table, having collected 10 points from their opening six games.