In my last blog post before the Christmas break, looking ahead to the five league matches in three weeks that were facing us, I rather tentatively suggested that: “making predictions is always a dangerous practice but if we can say win at least two and draw one, possibly two, of those matches then it is likely to move us up what is a very congested middle of the table”. Ground-breaking and insightful analysis I am sure you will agree!

To be sitting here today having won 4 out of 4, scoring 12 goals and conceding just 2, and with struggling Shrewsbury still to come at Brisbane Road tomorrow afternoon, shows just how quickly things can change in League 1. After the victory at Bristol Rovers on New Years Day, there was a stat doing the rounds on social media that on the 1^st of December Orient were languishing in 21^st place in the table and as of the 1^st of January we were in 8^th. However you look at it that is quite some turnaround. So what’s changed?

As suggested a little while back, it is too easy to cite that incredible Josh Keeley-inspired rescue act in the FA Cup against Oldham as the sole catalyst for our improved recent form. It no doubt gave the players, not to mention us fans, a lift but for me our new found momentum has been based on a number of factors.

Consistency of selection

It’s easy to forget that at the start of the season there was a significant amount of churn within the playing squad. With key players departing and new additions coming in in their place. As gaffer Richie Wellens suggested in his recent interview with the LO Down podcast: when there is so much change it is always going to take time to establish the first choice eleven, and for the players to really start to understand what he and the coaching staff want from them. That situation was in no way helped by injuries and the need for some players to settle into the squad or to get up-to-speed fitness wise (more on that below).

What we have been seeing over the last few weeks is the emergence of a first choice side with options to replace those who might miss games through injury, illness or suspension. 

Players settling in/ getting up to speed

In the early weeks of the season I think it is probably fair to say that you would have been hard pushed to find many Orient fans who felt that the likes of: Zach Hemming, Sonny Perkins, Diallang Jaiyesimi and Jamie Donley had increased the quality of our squad. You could even make the argument that many thought that a better option than Charlie Kelman could have been found as one of our goal threats, and also wonder why we had signed a midfielder desperately short of match fitness despite his undoubted experience and ability, in the form of Dom Ball.

Slowly but surely for the most part those players have started to settle and show what they can do. After what was essentially a nightmare beginning to his time in E10 with that error at home to Bolton, Hemming emerged as a fairly reliable back-up option to the quite frankly better quality Josh Keeley. The fact that he has now returned to Middlesborough is likely less because he wasn’t up to the requisite standard and more to do with a serious injury to Orient predecessor Sol Brynn.

From the late autumn Perkins seems to have grown in confidence after netting a couple of goals, played less on the periphery of games, and has given us glimpses of why he was signed by a Championship club. While it remains to be seen if he can deliver week in week out, he is still young and developing and depending on the severity of Dan Agyei’s ankle injury picked up at Bristol, we might well very much need him in coming weeks.

DJ seems to split opinion among the fanbase with some not rating him highly and others trusting that Richie knows him as a player and what he might be capable of from their time together previously. His goal up at Wigan showed what he might be able to contribute but I think the jury largely remains out.

In a similar vein to Perkins, Donley is a very young man gaining experience in senior football for the first time. In his first appearances he seemed to struggle to impact games, but recently there have been some very positive indications about why he is seen as a top prospect at his parent club. The injury to Tom James has allowed Donley to be selected in the same side as Ethan Galbraith who has been moonlighting at right back. Whether he continues to be picked when the Welshman returns and Galbraith is free to go back to his best position, will be interesting to see.

Which brings us to Charlie Kelman. Being totally honest there was a point round about the end of November / beginning of December when I had just about given up any hope of Charlie ever becoming the clinical goalscorer that we need him to be. His goal at Bristol made it 7 goals in 23 league appearances, with 3 coming in our last 4 in the league. On top of that there are signs that playing him through the middle with a rejuvenated Ollie O’Neill on the left and Dan Agyei on the right can truly cause teams problems.

As I have suggested in a previous piece, now that he seems to have got himself up to full fitness, Dom Ball’s quality, calmness and leadership is plain to see. With Sean Clare returning after his injury it is going to be very interesting to see which central midfield pairing the gaffer sees as his first choice.

Playing on the front foot

Part of carrying a greater attacking threat is that we seem to be moving the ball forward more quickly. Where before we often looked slow and ponderous, we now spring forward and use the pace and physicality of Dan Agyei and the incisive dribbling of Ollie O’Neill to get at teams’ rearguards. Jack Currie on the overlap from left back and Ethan Galbraith’s guile at times gives us a front five, which opposition defences have struggled to contain.

There has also been a greater sharpness to our pressing in recent weeks, which has made it difficult for opponents to play out and can force them into errors which can turn over possession deep in their own half.

Scoring more goals

Regular readers will know that it has been a long-standing concern of mine that we don’t score enough goals. However the factors outlined above have combined to see us find the back of the net more regularly in recent matches than we had been in the first part of the campaign. To date we have played a total of 23 league matches and scored 31 goals, however more than half of that total (17 to be precise) have come in the 7 matches after that pivotal cup win over Oldham.

The quality of the opposition

Of course in the interests of context, we do need to recognise that with the exception of Barnsley the teams we have faced in the last month have all been in the bottom half of the table, and some in the drop zone, whereas the teams we faced earlier were for the most part top half teams. This is however the nature of the fixture list at this level, and there are usually ebbs and flows of form with teams rising up or dropping down the table after runs of fixtures. 

The key now for Orient is to keep this positive run going and to keep building on the momentum we have generated ahead of some tougher fixtures to come. Having said that though another good performance and a good result against Shrewsbury tomorrow would be very welcome indeed.

Up The O’s!