Brisbane Road head coach Ian Hendon expects the visitors to be ‘free flowing’ tonight
Leyton Orient welcome Carlisle United to Brisbane Road this evening for a crucial clash in League Two, but the visitors will be without former O’s hitman Jabo Ibehre.
The 32-year-old, who started his career in east London and made more than 200 appearances for the E10 outfit between 2000 and 2008, had began the campaign in fine form.
He has scored 10 times in 13 appearances for the Cumbrians this season, but suffered a hamstring injury against Newport County on Saturday and is out of tonight’s clash against his former club.
Orient head coach Ian Hendon is expecting Carlisle to attack his team, but also knows they have conceded more than any other side in the division this year.
But he will be without a forward of his own, after Paul McCallum was stretchered off at Northampton Town last weekend.
He had replaced Ollie Palmer at Sixfields Stadium, who will almost certainly retain his starting place against Carlisle this evening.
Hendon said: “Ollie led the line well at Northampton, got hold of the ball and he chases it down and harries.
“He puts the opposition defence under pressure and I thought he had a good game. We took him off because he had run himself into the ground.
“Carlisle are free flowing. They are scoring lots of goals, but also conceding a lot and we had somebody watching them on Saturday at Newport.”
Orient will go into the contest with 18 points from their opening nine League Two matches, sitting third in the table behind Portsmouth and Wycombe Wanderers after losing top spot following their draw at Northampton.
Dean Cox scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time to earn the O’s a point, but Hendon admitted they should have won at Sixfields.
A sensational performance from Adam Smith in the Cobblers goal thwarted the east Londoners, however, and they are still without a victory in September.
“It felt more like a defeat at Northampton because of the way we have played throughout the game, with the saves the goalkeeper has made,” added Hendon.
“It was disappointing to come off with a point in the end, but to go a goal down that late and come back and score with a little bit of quality is pleasing.
“Every save was top drawer from Smith and then Northampton go and hit the crossbar and it bounces in, that was our luck, but I am delighted with the performance from the players.”
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