O’s suffered another defeat on Saturday after Danny Rowe’s brace gave AFC Fylde all three points at Brisbane Road
Steve Davis admits Leyton Orient need to look at different ways of playing after a terrible run of form in September.
The O’s started the month well with a 4-1 success over Guiseley, but have lost four of their last National League five games.
Defeats at Boreham Wood and at home to Halifax Town, Hartlepool United and now AFC Fylde, last weekend, has seen Orient drop to 15th in the table.
Davis said: “You have to look at other options when you’ve picked up one point out of 15.
“We have performed okay, but we are losing games and conceding goals and we have to find a way of stopping that.
“Sometimes if you put more defenders in there it can cause havoc, but we need to find a way of winning games and maybe we need to change something we are doing at the moment - whether that means going more direct or doing something different.
“Needs must sometimes and you want something to kick-start you to get you going again and if we get a good result on Wednesday (Tranmere Rovers) or Saturday (Barrow) then things can change very quickly.”
Orient need to halt their poor form, but they have two lengthy journeys coming up over the next week.
Wednesday’s clash at Tranmere is live on the BT Sport cameras and O’s then go even further up north to Barrow.
Davis insists he isn’t feeling the pressure after some September blues, but is well aware of the fact Orient need to start winning again.
He added: “One point out of 15 isn’t good enough. We have made that plain and we’ve spoke about how we have to do much better. October has to be better.”
A big recent problem for the ex-Crewe Alexandra manager has been an increasing injury list.
First-choice defenders Josh Coulson (groin) and George Elokobi (hamstring) won’t play again for the next eight weeks at least, with the latter set to return in 2018.
But rather than use the long absentees list as an excuse, Davis highlighted the players coming back which should help Orient moving forward.
“We just have to deal with the injuries. I did say there would be a point where we hit the buffers a little bit because of the timing of me coming in and the length of pre-season,” he said.
“A lot of them are off the back of that and you hope they’re soft tissue injuries, so two or three weeks rather than tears.
“Charlie (Lee) was the first and then we have lost quite a lot – including three in one game at Boreham Wood – but we are getting some back now.
“Matt (Harrold) is available and so is ‘Dayts’ (James Dayton) and James Brophy looks fit and Mark (Ellis) has been playing for Carlisle United. I don’t think we’ll have any issues with him.
“Dan Happe was good again on Saturday in just his second game of the season and he only turned 19 the other day.
“We had three new faces in the back four and that was more of a concern than anything else (going into the game), yet in the end it proved to be one of our strengths.
“Where I thought the strengths would come from we didn’t get it apart from Jobi (McAnuff), who I thought was our best attacking player.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here