East Londoners visit Mansfield this weekend and could play same formation they used against Scunthorpe United

Leyton Orient boss Ian Hendon is keen for his team to continue their momentum at Mansfield Town this weekend.

The O’s make the trip to Field Mill on Saturday to go up against the Stags, who are seventh in the League Two table.

Last time out Mansfield defeated Barnet 3-1 in north London, but were beaten at home by Exeter City on November 24.

Hendon believes his side can expect another difficult encounter, but is hoping they can extend their recent unbeaten run.

“Listen it is going to be difficult going to Mansfield, they are flying high. It is going to be a tough game,” said the Orient head coach following the Scunthorpe draw.

“I keep saying it every week (it will be tough) and at a point of repeating myself, but we will be looking forward to it.

“We are four unbeaten and we want to try and make that five at Mansfield.”

The east Londoners were without Paul McCallum, Dean Cox, Sammy Moore, Alex Cisak, Jay Simpson, Connor Essam, John Marquis and Cole Kpekawa last weekend.

Marquis and Kpekawa are definitely available for the league clash and Orient are hopeful Cisak, Simpson and Essam will be fit.

But if their top goalscorer isn’t okay to start, then Hendon appears to have found a back-up formation that works.

Ollie Palmer, despite missing two great chances, led the line well against Scunthorpe as Orient played a 4-2-3-1 formation.

They could do it again this weekend at Mansfield if Simpson isn’t completely fit or if they decide to rest him for the FA Cup second round replay on Tuesday.

Hendon added: “Our formation depends on personnel. If we have got Jay up there, no disrespect to him, but he needs to play with a partner.

“There were some positive performances against Scunthorpe. Blair Turgott played really well and that is more like it from him.

“I said to the boys after that match ‘thanks, but I am now going to have a headache all week and if we get a few people back the selection for Mansfield is going to be difficult.’”

The O’s boss was pleased with how the 4-3-2-1 formation worked against the Iron and it seems like something they could use more in the future.

“We played off our shape and created some good chances second half. I was delighted with the way we played,” added Hendon.

“Playing against teams from a higher division, they only need one chance and you get punished so we had to defend well.

“On the back of that we then created a few chances for ourselves so it was a very pleasing performance.”

Another good display on Saturday and Orient could find themselve in the plsay-off places again.