O’s head coach pleased with way team are playing, but knows there is more to come from talented squad
Leyton Orient moved up to third in the table with a 1-0 win at Maidenhead United on Monday, but Steve Davis believes it will take another three fixtures for O’s to be playing how he wants.
Macauley Bonne scored the only goal at York Road with six minutes on the clock to make it a good Bank Holiday for the east London club.
Orient’s tally of four points out of a possible six sees them in a good position after a testing opening month of the season, but Davis expects more from his team in time.
He said: “It looks like they are playing how I want them to play. Sometimes they get a bit panicky and try to go long and they can’t do that because we don’t have a big man up there right now.
“I am hopeful we will have that by the end of this week, so then we will have the option to play someone up there when we need too.
“We have already spoken in depth about how I want them to play and the tempo. I don’t think we have got the fitness to play the tempo I would like to play at the moment.
“They did it in periods of the game against Eastleigh where it looked exciting and hard to play against, so hopefully by 10 games we will be looking to play with a bit more energy.”
Bonne netted his fourth goal of the season – all of them away from home – after a James Dayton cross at Maidenhead.
Orient could have added to their tally through Josh Koroma after the break, but didn’t and then had to withstand some late Magpies pressure at York Road.
Sam Barratt went close on two occasions before David Mooney nearly wrapped up the points, but was denied by Carl Pentney.
Dave Tarpey almost grabbed a late leveller for the hosts in the fourth minute of stoppage time, but Josh Coulson bravely blocked to help Orient claim the win.
It means the east Londoners are third after seven games with 13 points going into the second month of the season.
A potential issue for O’s going forward is a lack of experience in the middle of the pitch after Charlie Lee’s injury.
The first-team captain is understood to have suffered suspected anterior cruciate ligament damage to his knee last Thursday.
It has already offered a chance to Craig Clay and he has grabbed his opportunity with both hands over the Bank Holiday weekend.
With Lee out for a significant amount of time, Freddy Moncur and Henry Ochieng have a chance to catch the eye of boss Davis now.
The former Crewe Alexandra manager admitted he may need more experience heading into September after a gruelling month of August.
Davis added: “I haven’t seen as much of Freddy compared to the others because initially it was about them four (Lee, Alex Lawless, Clay and Ochieng.
“Freddy does come in to that now and he spoke to me recently about where he would like to play.
“I haven’t seen him in a two, so maybe at some point we will try to see him in that position before we throw him in and see if he is capable of doing that job.
“He is a lad who gets around the pitch and is a real competitor, so I wouldn’t rule him out of the other three.
“We have lost a bit of experience in there with Charlie’s injury, so that is one of the other things we need to look at.”
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