As Dulcet Dave Victor put it when interviewing Richie Wellens immediately after the 1-0 victory over Rotherham United on Tuesday night: “The response you wanted, and the result you needed.” In fairness I think it was a result that every single member of the Orient fanbase wanted and needed.

It wasn’t pretty (is it ever against a Steve Evans side?) but we managed to find the breakthrough, albeit later in the match than we all hoped, kept a clean sheet, and saw out the result for our first home league victory of the season and a very important three points on the board.

After the calamitous performance and disappointing defeat at Sixfields (the less said about that the better!), going into the game on Tuesday evening it just felt that we needed to try to do something different to get us going again. While we didn’t really change the line-up or system very much, save for switching Dan Agyei to the middle of the front line with Charlie Kelman moving to the right side and bringing Darren Pratley in to start in midfield; we did seem to carry a bit more of a threat. Although with a total of five shots on target there is still work to be done from an attacking perspective.

While the performance against Rotherham wasn’t exactly filled with free-flowing and scintillating football, I felt we competed well and stood up to Rotherham physically. Maybe the way that Evans like his teams to play suited us as the game felt very attritional, as if neither team wanted to give anything away.

We finally made the breakthrough with just over 20 minutes to go, Dan Happe getting in front of his marker to nod home a Tom James free kick from out on the left. In the end despite some fairly nervy moments we managed to see out the match. The key difference being that we didn’t conspire to give away a goal as well as managing to find the net ourselves.

The hard fought victory halted our run of league matches without a win at five, and while it is too early to suggest we have turned a corner in terms of our form, it has at least stopped the rot to an extent. We now need to keep building on Tuesday night’s performance and hopefully start to generate some momentum as we head towards the winter months.

It was interesting that Josh Keeley started at Northampton and again on Tuesday night. From my perspective there was little he could do about the Cobblers’ goal, and he looked very assured and calm against Rotherham.  It was the way that he confidently dealt with balls into the box, for the most part catching them and immediately diffusing the danger, that really stood out. Especially in the later stages as Rotherham searched desperately for an equalizer.

Personally I don’t think chopping and changing goalkeepers is ever particularly wise, so I think we can assume that the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international is now the first choice ahead of Zach Hemming.

On the subject of consistency in team selection, it is starting to become a bit clearer as to what our first choice starting eleven looks like. The return of Dan Happe after injury, although he wasn’t great in the opening period against Rotherham, suggests that our preferred back four is: TJ, Omar Beckles, Happe and the impressive Jack Currie. Although of course that will be disrupted on Saturday when James serves a one match ban having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season on Tuesday night.

Before picking up his injury, Sean Clare was well on the way to establishing himself as a nailed on starter in central midfield. In his reported two to three month absence it will be interesting to see which two of Darren Pratley, Jordan Brown and Dom Ball start together on a regular basis. Prats’ influence was evident against Rotherham, but despite his high fitness levels, at 39 is he really able to start week in week out? Jordan Brown may well deputise at right back on Saturday but also put in one of his more influential performances in the engine room in midweek. While as we know Dom Ball missed out on a pre-season and is building up his fitness.

Ethan Galbraith picks himself as the central attacking midfielder (please Richie don’t put him at right back!) while ongoing injuries (Jordan Graham and Diallang Jaiyesimi) or lack of impact (Jaiyesimi again, Sonny Perkins and sadly given the initial expectation Jamie Donley) mean our front three is largely Hobson’s Choice. Although as touched upon earlier, while we looked a bit more of threat with Agyei through the middle we still aren’t scoring enough goals or even creating enough danger for opposition defences.

We saw what Agyei is potentially capable of in his cameo last season, but he doesn’t seem to be playing with same menace at the moment. After a relatively promising start Charlie Kelman’s form seems to have evaporated, recently he has shown a reluctance to shoot and if we are completely honest he didn’t offer a lot from the flank against Rotherham.

Ollie O’Neill has struggled to live up to the form that he showed from when he signed for us last season, something that often happens to young players. There is unquestionably talent there and there were some glimmers of improvement against Rotherham.

It doesn’t get any easier as next up is a trip to in-form Wycombe who haven’t lost in the league since being beaten by Birmingham back in the middle of August. They are currently on a run of 7 wins and 2 draws from their last 9 matches and sit in third place in the table. They are also the second highest scorers in the division so will inevitably test our newly established defensive resolve.

Common sense dictates that a draw would be a more than decent result, but if we somehow manage to sneak a win that would give us all another boost ahead of the FA Cup trip to Boreham Wood next weekend. Here’s hoping!

Up The O’s!