Orient’s victory over Wycombe Wanderers at Brisbane Road last Saturday made it four wins on the spin which have lifted us up to 17^th place in the table, 6 points clear of the dreaded dropzone. While we are not safe just yet, it is nice to be able to breathe a bit easier.

As those of you who read last week’s post (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings: A Hattrick of Wins Sealed by a Hattrick of Hattricks.) will know, I was actually away in Marseille last weekend so only have the benefit of highlights, Mrs Orient Nerd’s brief summary, and the match reports to base any analysis on, however from what I can gather we made relatively hard work of overcoming a Wycombe side reduced to 10 men from the 9^th minute of the match. We managed to get the opening goal 10 minutes after Taylor Allen’s red card through Demitri Mitchell, although it has to be said that Will Norris in the Chairboys’ net hardly covered himself in glory.

Reportedly we struggled to make our man advantage truly count and had to wait until added time for Idris El Mizouni, on as a substitute again as he works his way back to full fitness, to seal the victory with an effort from the edge of the penalty area that clipped the right hand upright as it went in.

This run of victories has not only improved our position in the table but has boosted the atmosphere around the whole club. Four weeks ago, when we had just been beaten at Brisbane Road by Barnsley, in what felt like a meek surrender of a performance, there was a tangible feeling of doom and gloom around E10. Now there is a tinge of positivity around the place. So what’s changed?

Looking in from the outside there seems to be more of a calmness and positivity amongst the squad. It is almost as if that painful loss against Barnsley provided the catalyst for a much-needed reset. This change in mood seems to have coincided with Paul Gallagher joining the first team coaching staff and Richie Wellens being noticeably more restrained on the touchline.

Equally, there has been much less chopping and changing of the starting eleven with the only changes being enforced due to injury. Admittedly injuries played a major part in forcing Richie to alter the team and even system on an almost weekly basis at the start of the season, but it also felt that too many changes were made based on form or on trying out different combinations. The new consistency in selection has allowed the players to build understanding, play their way into better form, and better understand and implement what the manager wants them to do. The impact has been plain to see.

It may have taken five attempts, but the addition of Will Dennis in goal has added a steadying presence behind our defence. The Bournemouth loanee has also made some crucial saves, especially late on in matches, to make sure that we haven’t let points slip away. In many ways Dennis is the embodiment of the goalkeeper that we have been trying to find for quite some time.  Whether we have any chance of signing him on a permanent basis will depend on his parent club, but if we aren’t able to make him our number one going forward, then we at least have the blueprint for the exact type of keeper we are looking for.

In addition to Dennis, bringing in Will Forrester and James Morris and the return to fitness and form of Tom James have very evidently improved our defence. We may have only achieved 1 clean sheet in those 4 games while conceding 4 goals, but the backline just looks more composed and solid.

Having an established first choice eleven has benefited other players as well. Azeem Abdulai finally looks at home in the central midfield role that seems to be his best position, with El Miz getting back up to speed I am quite excited to see how those two might work together as a double pivot in the centre of the park. We are also starting to see what Demitri Mitchell can contribute playing as a winger and given a run of games, while Charlie Wellens seems to have had an upturn in form as well.

Undoubtedly the star of our show is Dom Ballard who leads the League 1 Golden Boot race with 21 and counting. To think that he has almost, (and most likely will very soon!), match Charlie Kelman’s record from last season while playing in a team that has very much been struggling, is simply phenomenal. At just 20 years of age and with an obvious natural finisher’s ability he will undoubtedly attract interest over the summer. If we are still in League 1 and can convince him to give us another season we could have quite some prospect on our hands. Especially if we can get Aaron Connolly back up to speed and firing again.

Of course there is still work to be done to secure our safety, not least with trips to 20^th placed Exeter and 19^th placed Wigan in our next two matches, but if we are going into the home game against Huddersfield on Easter Monday still on this very welcome unbeaten run, then I think we can all be fairly content in contemplating our future. 

Up the O’s!