Brisbane Road head coach insists he has had no trouble attracting players to the club

Leyton Orient only played their first friendly of the new season on Friday, but head coach Ian Hendon has already revealed they are being scouted ahead of the new campaign.

The O’s start their League Two season with a clash against recently promoted Barnet at Brisbane Road.

Hendon will be coming up against a club he has a lengthy affiliation with after captaining and managed the Bees previously.

It seems Barnet have wasted no time getting a closer look at Orient, despite their squad not being completed, with scouts out in force at the Amlin Stadium last week.

“Funnily enough I saw an ex-Orient player Adrian Whitbread at Braintree on Friday,” said Hendon.

“He is now working with Martin Allen at Barnet so they are already out watching games as we will be. We will have people scattered everywhere watching games.”

The O’s assistant manager Andy Hessenthaler was actually at Dagenham & Redbridge’s friendly against Maidstone on Saturday to show Hendon’s statement is true.

Orient’s head coach also went on to discuss how it hasn’t been tough attracting players to the club this summer, despite suffering relegation to League Two.

He added: “It isn’t difficult to attract players to a London club in League Two, I have made a couple of signings already.

“Paul McCallum did great against Braintree, Blair Turgott has showed what he is about and Ollie Palmer has come on.

“Ollie has had a little problem with his toe so he has missed a couple of days training, but you can see what he is about.

“Everybody knows about Sean Clohessy, he is steady and Sammy Moore has put a shift in during the second half and does what he does best so I am more than happy with the signings.

“Trying to attract players to come to Leyton Orient and to play in London is not a problem.”

After Braintree, the O’s will be facing the likes of Huddersfield Town, Colchester United, Woking and Bishop’s Stortford in pre-season friendly.

Hendon acknowledged the club had to take what they could with no games arranged until after he arrived as head coach.

“I came into a situation where their wasn’t one game arranged so everything has been a little bit of a rush,” he added.

“We have had to take what we could get at the end of the day, but they are games. We will get the fitness in during those matches.”

Orient players and members of staff are set to fly to Spain today ahead of their training camp in Malaga.