Reflecting on what has been a mixed week for the O’s as they picked up one point from two League Two fixtures.

Saturday’s long trip north to Cumbria saw us pick up a valuable away point against a decent Carlisle side.

A point was probably a fair result considering the poor first half display and if Carlisle’s wide players had a better delivery, then it could have been more than 1-0.

However, Kenny’s tactical changes at half-time bringing on Harry Smith and Shadrach Ogie for the below par Ruel Sotiriou and Jayden Sweeney ensured a much more positive second half response.

Hackney Gazette: Harry Smith of Orient during Leyton Orient vs Harrogate Town, Sky Bet EFL League 2 Football at The Breyer Group Stadium on 24th August 2021Harry Smith of Orient during Leyton Orient vs Harrogate Town, Sky Bet EFL League 2 Football at The Breyer Group Stadium on 24th August 2021 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

I think this kind of tactical change is the difference between having an experienced manager like Kenny Jackett compared to Ross Embleton or Jobi McAnuff.

These changes by Kenny effectively won us that point whereas I feel under Ross or Jobi we would have lost the game by a larger margin.

Tuesday night’s home fixture against Harrogate Town seemed like the perfect opportunity to build on Saturday's away point with a home win.

Contrast to the Carlisle game I felt Kenny got it tactically wrong on this occasion.

We seemed to try and match Harrogate with big target man Harry Smith up front by only playing long balls into him, but it just didn’t work.

Hackney Gazette: Hector Kyprianou of Orient and Alex Pattison of Harrogate during Leyton Orient vs Harrogate Town, Sky Bet EFL League 2 Football at The Breyer Group Stadium on 24th August 2021Hector Kyprianou of Orient and Alex Pattison of Harrogate during Leyton Orient vs Harrogate Town, Sky Bet EFL League 2 Football at The Breyer Group Stadium on 24th August 2021 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

Orient looked rather one dimensional and that kind of style played into Harrogate’s hands.

Harrogate themselves a big side that wanted to play the game in the air rather than the floor made the game very difficult for us and ultimately done a job on the O’s.

You knew it wasn’t going to be our day once Harry Smith missed that penalty and the game seemed to fizzle out from that point.

A two nil home defeat left a large sense of frustration and a massive, missed opportunity for Orient.

There’s no time to dwell on Tuesday nights defeat as we welcome Bradford City to E10 on Saturday.

I think this will be our toughest test of the season so far. Bradford have started the season very well and look a rejuvenated side under the very experienced and successful Derek Adams.

The O’s will need to watch out for Bradford striker Andy Cook who has scored four goals in as many league games.

We will need to be significantly better this time out in order to take all three points.