After a hiatus of just under three months, it felt very much as if the Orient faithful were chomping at the bit for our lads to get back into action and to see how we would fare in the new League 1 campaign. A notion that was certainly reflected in the whopping 3,122 O’s fans that made the short trip to South East London. An interesting post shared on social media earlier this week revealed that ours was the second highest away following across the entire EFL, behind only Coventry City of the Championship, at the weekend. A clear indication that the feelgood factor is still very much alive and well in Orient-land.

To give it its due the Valley is an impressive enough ground, but despite the fact that it was until relatively recently a Premier League venue, the facilities that serve the away end are cramped to say the very least. Mind you it did make those of us that frequent the East Stand at Brisbane Road feel very much at home! There was however a real buzz of nervous anticipation and excitement right throughout the entire away end, which really added to the intensity around the match. 

With the nine new arrivals over the summer so far, albeit two being returnees, and issues around fitness and some reportedly long term injuries, it was difficult to predict how Richie would choose to deploy his charges. As it turned out only ‘keeper Sol Brynn and striker Joe Piggott of the new boys started, while El Miz (completely unsurprisingly) resumed his central midfield berth.

When the team line-up was revealed I can’t have been alone in thinking that it seemed as if we were going with three at the back with TJ as a third centre back and Rob Hunt and Jayden Sweeney as wingbacks. However as the teams were warming up, it became evident that Paul Terry was working with a more expected back four of: Hunt, Beckles, Happe and James, with Sweeney seemingly to be deployed further forward. Something to watch out for in the future perhaps? In fact there were occasions when James seemed to step into central midfield with Sweeney dropping back to cover, in the very much à la mode tactic introduced by a certain Catalan “super coach” currently plying his trade in Manchester.

For me we competed well in the match as a whole, but the step up in pace and intensity was evident through the 90 minutes and the sizeable chunk of added time, something that it looks like we are going to have to get used to this season with the new directives issued to match officials re: time keeping. In the end we were undone by an error in clearing our lines which Charlton ruthlessly seized upon and converted just before the break. I think, as many of us realise, this is one of the factors that we are going to have to adjust to at this higher level, where even relatively small mistakes may well cost us in terms of goals.

Equally the Addicks didn’t allow us the time on the ball that we were previously afforded in the fourth tier, and it seems clear that we are also going to have to learn to move the ball more quickly up the pitch if we are going to prevent our opponents from dropping back into an organised defensive shape, which we saw for a lot of the second half in particular.

It is easy to point the finger at our lack of true attacking threat for the majority of the game as we were restricted to just three shots on target, and suggest that the need for a new, more clinical striker is all too evident, especially given that Dan Agyei is likely to be out for as long as five months. However this feels like another challenge in moving up a level. While Joe Piggott performed well enough, finding ways to open up better organised defences is another challenge for the gaffer and our forward players. Having said that though the noises coming out of the club do suggest that there may be the addition of a “striker with speed” still to come.

Speaking after the match, Richie summed up the performance as: “Take away the actual 1-0, the result, and I think it’s been a brilliant day for the club…the performance apart from one moment’s lapse in the 44^th minute [was good],”. While it is always disappointing to lose, especially the opening game of the season, we competed with a more established League 1 club and arguably deserved something from the match. It will take time to adjust to the higher level, but the signs are there that we will learn and develop, and it is far too early to be despondent in any way about our prospects for the season, especially given last Saturday’s performance and that we have a number of players still needing to get fully up to speed.

The trip to Plymouth in the League Cup on Tuesday evening in many ways felt like a “free hit” given that we were facing a team that won the League 1 title last time out amassing a frankly ridiculous 101 points. Obviously thanks to the EFL’s ludicrous rules around streaming, only the 147 brave souls that made the trip were able to watch the match; however from what I can gather we were undone by two more defensive errors but generally competed fairly well in the second half if not the first. As I seem to always comment after a cup exit, we were never likely to win the competition so maybe the lack of distraction might prove of benefit as we focus on trying to establish ourselves in the league.

On the subject of establishing ourselves in the third tier, Principal Investor and Vice-Chairman Kent Teague when asked about his ambition for the club in an excellent interview on the Orient Hour on Wednesday suggested that: “My ambition is the same as it was…to put ourselves in a position where we’re in the Championship and what that means is just like we had to go from the National League to League 2 and League 2 to League 1, I think we are 3 or 4 years [away], and that’s what the kind of stated objective is.” While the aspirations of the board are to be commended, so is the continuing realistic, sensible, and rational approach that they believe will get us to where we want to be.

The challenges don’t get any easier at the start of the season as next up we face Portsmouth in our first home game of the new campaign. Pompey finished 8^th last season, 2 places and 8 points higher than Charlton and will no doubt, as they always seem to, be amongst the favoured teams for at least a play-off spot. If we have taken on board some of the early lessons then hopefully we can really match them and put in an even more positive performance and open our home campaign with a decent result.

 Up the O’s!