It may not have been especially exciting, nor anywhere near a brilliant performance, but Orient just about did what they needed to do last Saturday by avoiding defeat at Exeter City. The goalless draw kept us in 17^th place in the League 1 table, 6 points away from the dreaded dropzone, whilst an added time winner for Blackpool at home to Burton dropped the Grecians into the final relegation spot. It felt like another small step in the right direction towards ensuring our safety, if not quite as decisive a result as we would perhaps have hoped going into the game.

Whilst it may have been disappointing that we couldn’t put further distance between ourselves and the bottom four, our recent run of four consecutive victories which preceded the trip to Devon, has given us that vital bit of breathing room heading into the final seven matches of this frustrating campaign. 

Next up we face two more important games: away at 19^th placed Wigan tonight, and then at home to a Huddersfield side whose manager, Liam Manning, has been granted compassionate leave and who have won just twice in their last 9 matches. While we cannot take anything for granted, if we can secure at least 4 points from those matches then hopefully we can start to breathe a little bit easier ahead of the trip to table-topping Lincoln City a week on Saturday.

Thinking back across the season so far, I think the most apt description that I can come up with is underwhelming. Despite losing to Charlton, reaching the play-off final after a late surge of results, undoubtedly created a level of expectation amongst the Orient fanbase going into the summer break.

While we knew that there were other strong teams in the division, and that we would have to replace some (most?) of the previous season’s top performers, I am not quite sure we realised how difficult it would be to find players of the requisite quality to fill the boots of: Josh Keeley, Ethan Galbraith, Dan Agyei, Jordan Brown, Jamie Donley, Charlie Kelman, Jack Currie and, as has become more evident as the season has progressed, the retired Darren Pratley. Just writing those names has hammered home quite what a rebuilding job was needed in the summer!

As we have covered on numerous occasions, Dom Ballard, Aaron Connolly and Idris El Mizouni aside, it soon became apparent that the players coming in were either not up to the standard required, or at the very least would take some time to get up to speed with what Richie Wellens demands from his squad. The lack of consistency which saw us incapable of following up a good result with another one was clear testimony to that. To then lose Connolly and El Miz to long-term injury relatively early in the season only exacerbated the difficulties in getting this new squad to gel together.

The fact that we then brought in another 9 new players in the January transfer window suggests that both the manager and those above him had realised that the squad was simply not good enough and were taking drastic steps to try to put that right.

It is only in recent weeks, where we have seen a consistency in team selection that the squad seems to have settled down. Players such as Demetri Mitchell, Azeem Abduali and Tyreeq Bakinson have started to show what they might be able to contribute given a run of games in the starting line-up. Perhaps the one positive from our transfer dealings in 2025-26 has been the shift to signing players on permanent deals. With all of the following under contract for 2026/27 at least:

Goalkeeper: Killian Cahill.

Defenders: Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Will Forrester, James Morris, Phillip Chinedu.

Midfielders: Azeem Abdulai,Sean Clare, Michael Craig, Idris El Mizouni, Dylan Levitt, Ollie O’Neill, Charlie Wellens, Zech Obiero, Dan Carter, Tyreeq Bakinson.

Forwards: Josh Koroma, Aaron Connolly, Dom Ballard, Demetri Mitchell, Sonny Perkins, Lemar Gordon.

The loanees (Will Dennis, Kaelan Casey, Favour Fawunmi, Daniel Bachman and Ajay Matthews) will return to their parent clubs and decisions will be needed on players including Tom James, Dan Happe, Jack Simpson, Theo Archibald and Tobi Oluwayemi whose contracts expire at the end of the season, with replacements/upgrades needed if some move on.   

Equally, there is the risk that some of our squad (Ballard!) may attract interest from clubs higher up the football food chain. If that does transpire to be the case, then we have to hope that we negotiate appropriate transfer fees which we can effectively invest in enhancing the squad further. However compared to last season there seems to be a solid framework on which to build going forward.

Of course all of this becomes irrelevant if we lose our place in League 1. With 7 games remaining it is over to Richie Wellens and the players to make sure that we get enough points on the board to ensure our safety and can look back on this season as a transitional phase in our development. The alternative really doesn’t bear thinking about!

 Up the O’s!