Justin Edinburgh has taken Orient from 20th in the table up to 12th and kept eight clean sheets during his 24 games in charge

Leyton Orient legend Peter Kitchen has heaped praise on current head coach Justin Edinburgh for turning things around at Brisbane Road.

The 48-year-old was appointed on November 29 and has won half of his games in charge of the O’s to lead them up to 12th in the National League table.

When Edinburgh took over Orient were in the middle of a long winless run which had resulted in Steve Davis getting sacked two weeks earlier.

A debut defeat at Solihull Moors on December 2 showed the new head coach the size of the task at hand, but since then things have drastically improved.

Edinburgh currently has a win percentage of 50 per cent after winning 12 of his 24 games in all competitions with O’s drawing six and losing the other six.

Kitchen, who had two successful spells with Orient, said: “I think Justin has done a really good job.

“When he took over they had gone a long time without a league win and it looked like there was no passion.

“I don’t think Steve, Justin’s predecessor, got the balance of the team right and often they were criticised for not showing passion, but I just think they didn’t really believe in what Steve was trying to do.

“But when Justin came in he made them tighter and more of a unit and although the performances haven’t always been slick, as a team they have looked better.”

Edinburgh and Davis have managed 46 games between them and unsurprisingly it is the former who has a better record.

Orient’s former boss Davis was only able to win six of his 22 games in charge and five of those occurred during the opening month of the season.

The final nail in the coffin of the ex-Crewe Alexandra manager was a 2-1 defeat at Ebbsfleet United on November 11 which was the 11th loss of his reign.

Edinburgh has largely worked with a similar group of players, although he has had Josh Coulson and George Elokobi fit for a lengthier period of time.

January signing Ebou Adams has also made a big difference and looking ahead to next season, Kitchen doesn’t think the team is too far off from mounting a promotion push.

He added: “I think they just need a little bit more quality now. If they can get a little bit more quality in two or three positions I think they will be challenging next season.”