There is a very tangible feelgood factor overtaking the Orient fanbase at the moment. Buoyed by our recent run of good form, you could actually feel the buzz in the air as we headed to Brisbane Road on Saturday afternoon. Even with that renewed sense of optimism, I don’t think any of us expected it would be easy to beat second placed and in form Bolton. Especially given how we had been taken to the cleaners in the opening 10 minutes at their place just a few weeks previously.

While we may have been somewhat fortunate- especially when Dion Charles’ header hit the post when it looked for all the world that he would open the scoring just before the break; it never felt as if we were simply hanging in there.

When Dan Agyei seized on a block by the lively Jaden Sweeney midway inside the visitors’ half, drove toward goal and rifled home, it was exactly the direct attacking threat that we had been missing in the first half of the season. From there, despite Bolton trying to raise their game in search of an equalizer, we never seemed massively under threat and were able to see it out for another impressive win.

Not so long ago, there was a growing feeling of frustration amongst some of the Orient faithful, as we faltered in terms of our performances and struggled to pick up points as a result. So where did it all start to come right?

Most of us, gaffer Richie Wellens most definitely included, have pointed to that near fightback at Bolton as the turning point. Personally, I think there is definite merit in that notion in terms of the fighting spirit we showed, but for me it is having a largely settled side and the return to fitness of Dan Agyei that have sparked us back into life.

On Saturday there was only one change to the eleven that had started at Fratton Park: Jayden Sweeney coming in for Tom James as a result of the sad passing of the latter’s father (our thoughts and wishes are of course with you TJ at this difficult time). Whereas earlier in the campaign injuries, some illness, and the odd suspension meant that we were constantly chopping and changing our team. Since the reversion to Richie’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation we have only needed to make limited changes to the personnel and where they are deployed.

Whereas previously much of the analysis of Orient in 2023/24 had focused on whether the manager knew his best team and set-up, now it is becoming increasingly clear that he had a crystal clear picture of his preferred eleven and how he wanted them to play all along.

The biggest standout from our last two wins has been the pressing from our forward players, which has stifled our higher profile (and bigger budget!) opponents and prevented them from playing the way they wanted to. Think back to the win at Portsmouth, how much of the first half action was up the other end of the pitch from where the massed travelling Orient ranks were housed?

It was a similar story last Saturday when our attacking players harried and chased the Bolton rearguard making life uncomfortable for the visitors. In fact if you watch it back that is exactly where the goal came from: Sweeney’s pressure on the defender (Forrester?) forces him to rush his pass and we win it back and score the all-important goal. We know all too well that this is the approach that Richie prefers, and it feels like we have only really been able to make it work truly effectively since Agyei came into the side. This is probably why Charlie Kelman was so highly prized by the coaching staff last season despite his relatively low goal return. Agyei gives us that intensity of pressure, but also clearly knows where the back of the net is.

The win over the Trotters takes our recent good run to four wins and a draw out of our last five matches, with a hugely impressive five consecutive clean sheets. The 13 points we have picked up in this period accounts for a third of our total for the whole season. As I keep trying to convince myself, a spot in the play-offs still feels like an overly ambitious aspiration, but if we carry on like this then we may just have to revisit that thought.

Next up is a trip to ongoing crisis club Reading tomorrow afternoon. While we as a fanbase, perhaps better than many/most, can sympathise with their plight, the focus has to be on maintaining our level of performance and ensuring that we give ourselves every chance of picking up maximum points and extending our good run.

After that we face a hectic February with seven games in the space of four weeks, including trips to fifth place Barnsley and sixth place Oxford. It might feel like something of a daunting schedule, but didn’t we say that ahead of the last two rounds of fixtures? I realise as O’s fans that we have a natural tendency to pessimism to guard against disappointment, but the way the team is performing at the moment there is every reason to believe that we can continue to give a good account of ourselves against any opposition.

This week we also got the news of our second signing of the January transfer window, with the announcement that 21-year old winger Ollie O’Neill had joined on a two and a half year deal from Fulham. I have to confess that I don’t know a lot about him, other than the fact that he apparently scored against us for Fulham Under-21’s in the Pizza Cup earlier this season.

We know that Richie has been after another winger since Jordan Graham’s cruel injury at Burton, and the signing of a younger player from a higher level club is very much in keeping with the way our recruitment policy seems to be evolving (think Max Sanders and Ethan Galbraith). It will be interesting to see what the thinking is behind where O’Neill fits into the side. Will he come in in the first instance to give Theo Archibald a much needed break as he has tended to be deployed from the left, or will Shaq Forde make way despite his recent impressive performances wide on the right? I guess we might get an inkling into Richie’s thinking tomorrow afternoon.

Here’s hoping for another fun trip in front of another packed away end, assuming of course the home fans’ protests don’t result in the game being abandoned again!

Up the O’s!