This weekend Leyton Orient look to build on from their midweek victory against Gillingham as they welcome fellow promotion hopefuls Salford City to Brisbane Road.
Exceptional
Orient come into the game having comfortably swept aside a toothless Gillingham team on Tuesday night thanks to second half goals from Paul Smyth and Ruel Sotiriou. Forward Theo Archibald continued his good form as he claimed the assists for both goals after scoring twice himself in the previous game away at Carlisle.
The O’s boss Richie Wellens was particularly pleased with his team’s second half performance when he spoke to the club’s media team after the final whistle telling them, “Second half was just exceptional – when we got going, I just enjoyed watching us.”
Back On Top Of The Pack
Back-to-back wins have returned Orient back to the top of the League Two table after a three-match winless run had seen them drop to third place. The only concern for Orient will be the availability of summer recruit George Moncur who had a troublesome wisdom tooth removed at the beginning of the week, forcing him to miss the victory over Gillingham on Tuesday night.
Salford City
The Ammies have struggled for consistency this season but nevertheless find themselves fifth in the table. After losing their two previous matches, Salford got themselves back on track on Tuesday night, winning 2-0 away at Hartlepool.
Salford have struggled in front of their own fans this season, failing to win a game at the Peninsula Stadium since the end of August. Conversely, their away form is very good as they have won each of their last four league games on the road.
The pressure will be on head coach Neil Wood to improve his team’s home form and deliver the promotion to League One that the club’s notoriously ambitious owners have spent the last couple of years aiming for.
Familiar Faces
Saturday’s game will see Richie Wellens return to the club that he managed during the 2020/21 season.
The Leyton Orient head coach was sacked by Salford just 11 days after delivering the club’s first piece of silverware as an EFL club, beating Portsmouth in the EFL trophy final at Wembley in March 2021.
In an interview with The i, Wellens went on the record to complain about his treatment at the hands of Gary Neville and his fellow club owners stating, “Did I enjoy working there? No. I have certain standards, certain disciplines I think need to be in place in a football club, things any manager will tell you they need…I didn’t think they had them at Salford. When I was working in that kind of environment, I couldn’t enjoy it.”
