On the face of it a 1-1 draw at home against Bolton Wanderers, a team who we have struggled against in recent seasons and who will likely be challenging for the play-off places again this season, is far from disastrous. So why does it feel a tad frustrating?

Once again we struggled to look truly threatening in front of goal, with our only shot on target being Jack Simpson’s 69^th minute opening goal. However once we had found the breakthrough, we then succumbed to a stoppage time equalizer. Admittedly the impressive Amario Cozier-Duberry’s effort was of top quality, but it seemed a little bit too easy for him to work the opening for his shot.

In many ways the performance and result on Saturday encapsulated Orient’s season so far: not bad, but not completely encouraging at the same time. As we have covered on several occasions over the opening weeks of the season, it is understandably taking time for the 15 new players to bed into the squad and for gaffer Richie Wellens to get across what he expects from his team. Even with that in mind it is difficult to know what to make of Orient’s start to 2025/26, so with 8 games played I thought it might be interesting to look at the positive and negative aspects on how we have fared so far.

Position in the League Table

Orient’s start to this campaign has seen us win 3, lose 3 and draw 2 matches- pretty much the definition of average form. However, somewhat surprisingly, it isn’t vastly different from the opening 8 matches last season in which we won 2, drew 2 and lost 4. That was immediately after the goalless draw at home to Wrexham. The one additional victory however means that we currently sit 3 points better off in 14^th spot in the table rather than 18^th.

Last season we then went on to lose our next 3 league games against Exeter, Lincoln and Northampton. In our next 3 matches this season we face Reading away, Stevenage at home and then Cardiff away. From an optimistic perspective if the team and squad continue to develop their cohesion and understanding, and we can pick up say 4 to 6 points from those matches then we will be better off than last season. From a pessimistic point of view if we struggle to get results in the next 3 games then we might well find ourselves looking over our shoulder again.  

Goals Scored and Goals Conceded

This time last season we had scored 9 goals and conceded 11, this season it is 10 goals for and 13 against. The unexpected (by yours truly at least!) 4-1 win at Stockport and the 2-2 draw at home to Peterborough the following Tuesday evening accounted for 2/3rds of our goals at this stage last term, whereas this time we have scored in all but 2 of our matches.

Obviously letting in 3 at Huddersfield and 4 at Mansfield has impacted our goals against column, but if we are being completely honest our defence has looked a little bit shaky right from the off this season. It feels obvious to say (and much harder to do of course!) but finding a way to be tighter at the back while increasing our offensive potency will be the key to driving us up the table.

In fairness the switch to 3 at the back last Saturday seemed for the most part to work to stifle Bolton’s attacking threat (Cozier-Duberry’s brilliant strike very much excepted!), and lest we forget that our much-needed new number 9, Dom Ballard, has only made two league appearances so far, but the signs are there that he and Aaron Connolly are already beginning to forge an effective understanding.

Progress in the Cups

While we all enjoyed winning through to the third round of the League Cup at the beginning of last season, an argument could be made that it acted as a bit of a distraction and possibly impacted our league form. Our defeat by Wycombe in the first round this season means that Richie and his staff have more time to work with the squad on the training ground and to really get their messages across. Might our elimination actually be a blessing in disguise?

Style of Play

There has been a number of occasions after matches this season when the manager has spoken plainly about how the squad have not been doing what is expected of them. Most recently speaking after the draw with Bolton he suggested that he was “alright with [taking] a point considering we didn’t really do what we wanted to do.” To my admittedly untrained eye it seems that for all the talent that we have in our squad the system and style of play isn’t quite clicking at the moment. As we alluded to earlier on that is completely understandable given the sheer number of new personnel, and will of course take time, but I also think the onus is on the players to start getting to grips with the manager’s demands.

Strength of the League

Without big-spending Birmingham and Wrexham, the division feels a lot more even this season. In fact even in 14^th spot we are currently only 2 wins off the top. No team has as yet shown any genuine consistency, so if we can string a sequence of wins together then we can really start to move ourselves up towards the play-off spots.

While it is way too early to suggest that our next 3 matches are pivotal in terms of our chances of success this season, it does feel as if we are at something of a crossroads: pick up a decent number of points from them and we can start to build some momentum, however if the results don’t go our way then the frustration will only grow. An improved performance and 3 points at Reading tomorrow afternoon would be an excellent way to start. 

Up the O’s!