Ex-Woking defender offers an honest assessment of O’s season with Steve Davis’ team losing their last three fixtures

Jake Caprice feels Leyton Orient are underachieving right now in the National League with close to a quarter of the season complete.

The O’s suffered another defeat on Saturday – their third in quick succession – to drop to 13th in the table after 11 matches.

Orient have a mounting injury list at the moment with seven players missing for last weekend’s 2-1 loss at home to Hartlepool United, but Caprice has called on others to step up.

The right-back was impressed with 18-year-old Dan Happe on Saturday, who slotted in well, but couldn’t prevent another defeat.

And when Caprice was asked if O’s are underachieving even with their injury problems, the right-back replied: “Yes, 100 per cent.

“Injuries are why we have a squad. The team is not going to stay fit for the whole season, so when players aren’t playing, others need to be ready.

“Dan maybe wouldn’t have expected to play on Saturday, but he has come in and done really well and that is what others now have to do. The whole team won’t stay fit for the entire season, so we need to utilise the squad.”

Injuries to the likes of George Elokobi and Josh Coulson have hit Orient hard, while James Dayton has been missed during the home defeats to Halifax Town and Hartlepool.

Another concern for O’s is the lack of clean sheets in recent weeks having recorded three during the opening month of the new campaign.

Caprice admitted recent enforced changes to the defence haven’t helped, but conceded it can’t be used as an excuse.

The former Woking full-back added: “The boys that have come in are more than capable of keeping clean sheets.

“It does unsettle you when the back four changes, but it is through injury, so there is not a lot we can do about it.

“We need to just improve on our set-piece defending in training and we have a week to do it now ahead of Aldershot Town, so we’ll try to be better.”

Both goals Orient conceded on Saturday against Hartlepool were from free kick deliveries and they also struggled to deal with balls into the area at home to Halifax.

It appears a problem that Steve Davis must solve soon otherwise O’s will continue to slide.

Orient are missing a lot of key players due to injury, but Caprice is right, they need to improve.