Having pondered Orient fans’ slight frustration at two draws in succession last week (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings- Is our slight frustration a sign of how far the O’s have come in such a short space of time?), I guess I should probably blame myself for the goalless draw that played out at the Pirelli Stadium last Saturday. However in mitigation, with both teams sitting on the same number of wins, draws and points, the likely outcome was always the possibility that the two sides would essentially cancel each other out, and so it was to prove.

Sadly the main talking point from an Orient perspective was the injury to Jordan Graham that looks likely to have brought an end to his season. Obviously we all wish him the very best with his recovery, but as a squad we have also now lost perhaps our most creative attacking player. After taking a little bit of time to get up to speed and fitness at the start of the campaign, his ability to beat his man in a small space, and the quality of his crossing was more than evident. Get well soon Jordan.    

While a draw was probably a fair result in the end, the biggest frustration from a performance perspective was that, once again, we looked pretty toothless from an attacking point of view. Although we had the odd decent opening, watching on at Burton I was far from convinced we were going to make the all-important breakthrough.

Speaking after the match gaffer Richie Wellens was obviously a bit down on his charges, suggesting: “it stunk of third game in a week, second away game in four days…we were really poor second half.” While I think many of us will agree with that sentiment, and of course playing three league matches in a week fairly regularly is one of the challenges of the lower divisions, he also went on to say that he felt we didn’t do enough in the final third.

At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, our conversion rate in front of goal has been something that has been worrying me for quite some time. We were able to get away with it against lower quality opposition last season, and while our form is certainly far from disastrous, not taking enough of our chances is costing us in terms of our points return.

The draw on Saturday was our fifth in our fifteen league matches so far (alongside five wins and five losses for complete symmetry), just converting two of those results into wins would have us on the cusp of the play-off places in what is a tight grouping of teams in mid-table.

We are now of course pretty much a third of the way through the season, and while it is still early to draw any truly firm conclusions, it feels as if we have proven we are good enough to compete at this level, but we have also hinted that perhaps we might even be capable of more.

Most Orient fans seemed to agree at the start of the season that midtable security/consolidation was probably the realistic aim for our first season back in the third tier since the days of you-know-who; but there have been flashes of performance that suggest that a top ten finish (possibly even higher) may not be completely out of the question. If as Richie said after the Burton match, we had “a bit more firepower, more goals in us” then there would be every reason to believe we could really push on from the start that we have made.

We of course have Dan Agyei to return in the coming months, but realistically it is going to take him some time to get fully back up to the requisite level of fitness and sharpness after such a bad injury. There is also the outside possibility that we might add another forward player in January. As we touched upon last week though: getting more from the attacking players we already have at our disposal might be the key to how successful we can actually be this term.

With niggles, injuries and the odd suspension starting to impact team selection, it feels that this Saturday’s FA Cup tie at home to Carlisle might have come at an opportune time. While Richie has been keen to point out that we want to win the match and progress in the competition, it might also provide an opportunity to rotate the squad a little bit allowing some players a bit of a rest while getting vital minutes into some of those that need them.

Nigel and the board have made it clear on several occasions that a decent cup run would be more than welcome, not only in terms of the club’s finances, but also as something for the fans to enjoy. A victory over Carlisle this Saturday would be the first step in making that a reality.

Speaking of Nigel Travis, he and Mark Devlin hosted an online Q&A on Wednesday evening which covered a whole range of the usual subjects such as: the likelihood of a developed Brisbane Road/ new stadium and training ground, potential business in the January transfer window, a desire to boost the fan base and maximise revenue etc. (fellow Orient Blogger Leyton Laureate has provided a full transcript of the session if you haven’t yet had chance to watch it- Leyton Orient fan Q&A with Nigel Travis and Mark Devlin: A new stadium for the O’s? – Leyton Laureate, a LOFC blog (wordpress.com)).

For me the biggest takeaway from Nigel and Mark Devlin’s open comments was with regard to the strategic direction of the club. As per the much vaunted new 3-Year Plan, this season and the next two are very much about consolidation in League One, and if we find ourselves in a position to push for promotion then we have to be ready to take it. The longer term vision is to grow the fanbase, revenue and standing of the club locally, in London and in the wider football world.

With that in mind the club are already starting to lay some of the foundations upon which to build that growth, and while some of the decisions may not have gone down especially well with existing supporters (restricting access to the Gallery bar after matches, categorisation of matches and as a result ticket prices to name but two), we were assured that they are being made with the future of the club in mind.

It was also made very clear that the next phase of the club’s development will depend on ramping up our matchday revenue. While Mark Devlin and his team are continuing to look at ways to increase the capacity and improve Brisbane Road, there are also some very evident obstacles to that in the way our current home has been designed. It seems fairly evident to all that if we are truly to deliver on the aim of establishing ourselves as a Championship club, then a new ground is a must.

For the first time that I can recall from these types of discussions, a firm desired capacity “north of 17,000, somewhere 17,000, 20,000” and an outline timescale “realistically five to ten years away”, were suggested. It seems that some positive initial talks have been held with Waltham Forest council about keeping the club in the borough, but obviously there is still a very long road ahead.

Once again it seems as if the trajectory of the club both on and off the pitch is an upward one with a potentially very exciting future ahead. For now though all we can do is focus on enjoying what Richie and the lads are doing on the pitch and seeing where it might take us. Progress to the next round of the world’s oldest cup competition would be a very nice way to start.

Up the O’s!