Well that was thoroughly depressing to watch wasn’t it? Just when we thought Orient might be turning a corner and starting to build some momentum after wins against Lincoln in the league and Tamworth in the cup, we go and put in a “performance” like the capitulation at Wycombe last Saturday lunchtime.

Throughout the course of the season we have continually touched upon the sheer number of new players in the squad, and subsequently the time it will take for them to gel and gain the understanding of each other that is so crucial to the way that Richie Wellens wants his teams to play. But what we saw against Wycombe was nothing to do with players getting to know each other, it was about sloppiness in defence and a very evident lack of attitude, desire or commitment to do what is required.

Modern football parlance often talks about the “non-negotiables”, the factors that are essential to a team’s culture and success and are not open for discussion or compromise. While we aren’t privy to what these might be for the current Leyton Orient squad, I would imagine things like effort, supporting team mates, being happy to do the hard work etc. have been spoken about on numerous occasions. We saw nothing resembling adherence to those sorts of key principles in last Saturday’s performance.

Without wanting to pick on an individual player, I have to say that when I saw the team was unchanged with Azeem Abdualai continuing in the number 10 role ahead of Charlie Wellens, I found myself confused to say the very least. It’s not that I am against Abdulai in any way (honestly I’m not!), it’s just that I personally haven’t seen anything from him that demands a place in the starting lineup.

However while for the most part we struggled to create very much at all from an attacking perspective; the real problems were with regard to our defence. Quite why we thought it was an effective option to have Tom James face up directly against Fred Onyedinma is anyone’s guess? Rather unsurprisingly right from the start of the match James was badly exposed on the left side of our rearguard.

It took all of 3 minutes for Onyedinma to open the scoring for Wycombe, latching on to a simple ball hooked over the top that our defence just watched, allowing the winger to smash past Killian Cahill largely untroubled.

While it gave us some sort of hope when Wycombe goalkeeper Will Norris was adjudged to have impeded Dom Ballard as he looked to fight his way towards goal, and we were awarded a penalty which Aaron Connolly duly converted. It took just 5 minutes for any semblance of optimism to be quashed. Onyedinma left James for dead in chasing another ball over the top and slotted across Cahill and into the far corner.

Things could have been even worse just before the half hour mark when Cahill brought down Onyedinma on the edge of the area but (fortunately?) escaped with just a caution.  That didn’t deter Wycombe at all and minutes later Dan Casey made it 3-1, by that point we were already looking very much like a beaten team.

In fairness we did raise our game at the start of the second half but couldn’t find the goal that we so desperately needed to gain a foothold in the match. When Sam Bell made it 4-1 with quarter of an hour to go it was not only depressing but had inevitably sealed our fate. In truth Wycombe could, and possibly should, have scored more and were deserved victors.

Speaking to Dave Victor after the match a dejected Richie Wellens suggested we were “poor, really poor from the start really” and that “you won’t see 4 worse goals given away up and down the country today”. Maybe Monday night’s game on Tamworth’s artificial pitch took quite a lot out of us physically, and perhaps we could have changed some of the personnel in an attempt to freshen things up, but for me it wasn’t just about fatigue, it was also about the lack of the correct attitude from the players. If we are being brutally honest with ourselves, this isn’t the only time that the players have been found wanting this campaign, just the most recent and arguably the worst example.

We have now conceded the second most goals in the division with 27 and sit in 20^th place in the table just 2 points above the relegation spots. Not exactly the evidence of us having turned the corner that we were hoping for! Of course many will suggest that we were in a very similar position this time last season before we went on that impressive run to lift ourselves up the table. This time it just feels different. There doesn’t seem to be the same feeling of togetherness within the squad or being prepared to put in the hard graft for the team and grind out results.

I think what irked me the most about Saturday was that there wasn’t any anger on the faces of the players. No semblance of fight to get ourselves out of the mess we found ourselves in. Just resignation that we weren’t going to win. There is just no consistency to our performances, even in terms of effort and commitment. Encouraging performances seem to be followed up with lackadaisical ones, and the whole squad seems to be lacking the drive and impetus that is so important.

We now face two consecutive home matches against teams that sit immediately above us and below us in the table in the form of Exeter and Blackpool, followed by a trip to a resurgent Burton. It seems almost churlish to say it, but if we don’t pick up a decent number of points from those three games things will start to look very bleak for the remainder of the campaign.

I guess the one good thing is that the entire division is separated by just 15 points, so a run of good results could really drive us up the table. To do that the players need to adjust their attitude and do everything that is required, tomorrow afternoon at home to Exeter would be an excellent place to start.

Up the O’s!