The O’s head coach provides an update on the January transfer window with Orient expected to be busy this week
Leyton Orient head coach Justin Edinburgh was impressed with the commitment of his players after giving everything during this afternoon’s goalless draw at local rivals Dagenham & Redbridge.
The O’s and their east London foes played out a stalemate at Victoria Road to give each other a share of the spoils and their first point of 2018.
Both teams had chances, but Orient custodian Dean Brill and opposite number Mark Cousins walked off with clean sheets.
For the Brisbane Road outfit, it was a good way to bounce back following a frustrating 1-0 loss at home to Bromley on Saturday when O’s had to play 86 minutes with only 10-men.
Edinburgh said: “I’m delighted with the performance. I thought we were dogged and committed and it was not pretty at times, but what I would say is when I first came to the club I don’t think we would have got that performance.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement and I’m proud of the players because as we know we played long periods against Bromley with 10-men, but it didn’t affect our performance.”
He continued: “Saturday hurt us because yes the performance was top class, but we didn’t get the result and I thought it might affect the players today.
“However, we’ve shown the character is there and the determination is and we’ve quickly got back on track. If we can keep raising the level of performance you never know what might happen.”
The closest Orient went to breaking down Daggers was when David Mooney saw a close range header brilliantly saved by Cousins in the 47th minute.
“It was quite incredible,” said Edinburgh. “The cross (from Joe Widdowson) was fantastic and the header was everything you want it to be, but the goalkeeper has made a great save.”
With today marking the opening of the winter transfer window, Orient are expected to be busy with Edinburgh revealing he wants to make at least two signings before the visit of Boreham Wood on Saturday.
He added: “Yes I’ve offered names to the chairman and we are in advanced stages with all of them players, so hopefully we conclude our business pretty quickly.
“We need to do that and we have been active behind the scenes, so I hope we will have two in place by Saturday if not another and we’ll look for a couple more after the weekend.”
The O’s are expected to announce one of those signings tomorrow, while Edinburgh went on to praise the work of director of football Martin Ling.
“I see Martin every day and he has been a fantastic support. He’s worked tirelessly and it has allowed me to focus on the most important thing and that is getting results for this football club,” said the Orient head coach.
Recently Edinburgh revealed Josh Coulson was very close to agreeing a permanent switch from Cambridge United.
But it isn’t 100 per cent finalised yet, he added: “It is not official, but we are edging ever closer and we’re hopeful, but you never know until it is secured and that’s something we want to do.”
Orient are 19th in the table after today’s stalemate, but with more reinforcements on the way, they can expect to move towards the top-12 soon.
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