Well that was a bit more positive wasn’t it? While it wasn’t the most scintillating performance or convincing victory, the most important thing for Orient last Saturday against Lincoln was simply to find a way to win the match.

In the last week’s post (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings: Will the Real Leyton Orient Please Stand Up?), I wondered whether we might see Richie Wellens change things up either through the players selected and/or a change to the system. While that wasn’t exactly groundbreaking thinking on my part(!), we did see a reversion to the “tried and trusted” 4-2-3-1 system that has generally served us well in previous seasons.

The change in formation saw Michael Craig and Tom James deployed as more traditional fullbacks, but with the seemingly clear instruction to invert into central midfield areas when the opportunity arose. Sean Clare returned to the central defensive midfield position which many, (myself most definitely included), think suits him more. His discipline in covering in front of and sometimes dropping between central defenders Omar Beckles and Dan Happe, not only provided the extra cover that has been missing on several occasions this season but also allowed Idris El Mizouni to play his more natural role.

Up front it was somewhat surprising that Charlie Wellens dropped to the bench to be replaced by Azeem Abdulai in the number 10 role, while Aaron Connolly and Josh Koroma were stationed on the flanks with Dom Ballard as the central striker.

It was far from plain sailing, however. Right from the start of the match Lincoln took the game to us. When they hit the crossbar and had a couple of other decent chances early on, I can’t have been the only one fearing another frustrating performance and disappointing result. However slowly but surely we managed to claw our way into the game and eventually got a grip of the midfield and started to dictate the tempo of the match. El Mizouni in particular seemed to be pulling the strings in an impressive performance.

We finally made the breakthrough we desperately needed just past the hour mark when El Miz’s glancing header on the run from a Michael Craig cross nestled in the back of the net. From there it was very much a case of seeing the game out and getting what felt like a vital 3 points in the bag.

While it was a welcome win, without wanting to be too negative, it is only a single victory and given what we have seen so far this season, it is probably too early to say we have turned a corner in terms of finding much-needed consistency. As we have said on previous occasions, what is important now is to put a string of performances and results together, build some momentum, and start to climb what is looking like a congested middle part of the table. For now though we can put the league programme on hold for a couple of weeks and focus on the cup competitions.

For some not entirely clear reason, despite it being pretty much a dead rubber with nothing but top spot in the group to play for, I couldn’t resist going to the Vertu Trophy match against Aston Villa Under-21’s on Tuesday evening. While the match wasn’t exactly a rip-roaring clash, it offered a useful opportunity to get minutes into the legs of those players who have not featured very much, or at all, this season.

Alfie Lloyd got a good half an hour under his belt from the start of the match and looked a handful, albeit with the added consideration that it was against a defence comprising academy kids. Lemar Gordon looked lively after replacing Lloyd, and big Phil Chinedu made a case for himself to be promoted to the first team squad as cover at centre back depending on the terms of the loan agreement with Wealdstone.  We also had the very welcome return from injury of Zech Obiero, although quite where he fits into the gaffer’s plans for midfield remains to be seen?

The tie was eventually settled by a late goal from DJ meaning that we top the group with 3 wins out of 3 and are guaranteed a home tie in the next round when the draw for the knockout phase is made in the middle of next month. I completely get the general apathy towards this competition, especially in the group stage, but it does offer the opportunity to potentially progress to a Wembley Final.

The focus for this coming weekend is all on the first round of the FA Cup and a Monday evening trip to Tamworth for us. While obviously the plastic pitch and opposition from the National League screams banana skin, we only have to look back to last season to see the impact that a decent run in the world’s oldest cup competition can have on both a club’s finances and the fanbase. Hopefully we can progress this time without the drama of a penalty shootout or an added time equalizer from our goalkeeper. Mind you last season’s run was great fun though wasn’t it?

After that it is back to league action with games away at Wycombe, home to Exeter and Blackpool and then away at Burton; we can only hope that by the time the second round of the Cup arrives at the beginning of December we are still in the competition and have very much improved our league position.

Up the O’s!