Goals from Jimmy Smith, Alex Revell, Paul-Jose M'Poku and Jonathan Tehoue secured a fifth home league win of the season for Orient and although Colchester replied through Anthony Wordsworth and Ian Henderson in the second half, Slade's side were worthy winners.
Slade said: "It's a much happier New Year after this result than the game at Brighton when we lost 5-0. It was important for us to bounce back after that performance and that's what we did.
"I thought we showed great character and great patience at times. To concede five goals in our last game, but still want to play out from the back like we did was terrific credit to our players.
"We kept playing and I thought we got the goal we deserved to take the lead in the first-half and then second half was end-to-end stuff.
"We managed to get a couple of good finishes away and maybe, on another day, we could have won even more convincingly."
Source: PA
Source: PA