Former Luton Town ace played alongside Charlie Lee for first time on Tuesday night and looked good in centre of park

East London Advertiser: Hornchurch�'s George Purcell (left) looks to chase down Leyton Orient�'s Charlie Lee (pic: Gavin Ellis/TGS Photo).Hornchurch�'s George Purcell (left) looks to chase down Leyton Orient�'s Charlie Lee (pic: Gavin Ellis/TGS Photo). (Image: �TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

Alex Lawless felt Leyton Orient’s goalless draw with Hornchurch was a good warm-up game ahead of the National League opener on Saturday week.

The O’s created plenty of chances on Tuesday and were able to open up their Isthmian North opponents on several occasions.

Although Orient’s finishing wasn’t up to scratch, they coped well with a team who defended deep at times.

Steve Davis’ players could find several National League sides will do something similar during the 2017/18 campaign.

“We will face all types of games, so it is good we are facing different tests in pre-season,” said Lawless.

“It is important to get you ready for the new season and the Hornchurch game will be similar maybe to a match where we have a lot of possession.

“I am sure there will be times where we need to try and break a team down and it was good practise for that.”

When asked about some of the chances Orient missed on Tuesday, Lawless was quick to make no excuses.

He does, however, believe the squad have time to improve on that over the next eight days – ahead of visiting Sutton United on August 5.

Lawless added: “I wouldn’t like to say it is early because we are not too far away from the first game, but there is time for us to get that little bit of sharpness for the goals and I am sure we will do that.”

The friendly with Hornchurch was played a brilliant pace and seemed more like a cup game rather than a pre-season match.

Ex-Yeovil Town midfielder Lawless made his first appearance for Orient since suffering a whack to the eye at Harlow Town.

After that slight problem, the Welshmen then had a back issue, so he had to sit out the Greenwich Borough friendly.

Therefore he was delighted to feature at Bridge Avenue and play with Charlie Lee for the first time.

“We have good players and the manager has tried to tell us, in the short time he has been here, what is expected and we tried to pick the tempo up on Tuesday because that is what we need to do this season,” said Lawless.

“The Hornchurch game was a stepping stone for the National League and it will be good for us to push on from that and get better.”

Davis was impressed with Lawless’ performance despite the midfielder missing a couple of games.

He was encouraged by the early signs of his partnership with Lee, as they played just over an hour at Hornchurch.

“Alex was good and he has done all the running, but he has just lacked that match sharpness and game time,” said Davis.

“I thought he and Charlie formed a good partnership and for 45 minutes they were doing the things I wanted them to do.

“Charlie was probably a little bit more attack-minded, although Alex does like to get forward at times, so they need to share that load, but I did think the relationship between the two was very good.”