Alex Revell was the last Orient player to score on the opening day of a league season when O's lost 2-1 at Yeovil.

The O’s chief is desperate to get a good start

Orient manager Russell Slade will be looking to make it third time lucky when his side launch their League One campaign at Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

During his two full seasons in charge at Brisbane Road Orient have experienced the full range of emotions.

Last season the side just about preserved their League One status when they ended a nail-biting campaign in 20th position.

Quite a contrast to 12 months earlier when the O’s were punching above their weight and ended up just a solitary point short of the play-offs.

However, there was one constant during both seasons – the O’s made a disappointing start and were always playing catch-up.

Two seasons ago Orient took just four points from their first seven games as they beat Exeter City 3-0 and drew 1-1 at Southampton, the only highs in a series of lows as they suffered defeats against Yeovil Town, Charlton Athletic, Dagenham & Redbridge, Huddersfield Town and Notts County.

That sequence of results left O’s just one off the bottom of the table.

But if that was bad, last season was even worse. They found themselves rock-bottom after 10 games and had just three points on the board following draws at Chesterfield, Colchester and Huddersfield Town.

It’s a statistic not lost on manager Russell Slade and he admitted: “We want to get off the mark and make an acceptable start,” he said.

“It is difficult if you are playing catch-up all the time.

“But one of the reasons it happened last season is because we conceded 75 goals in the league and that is something we have got to address.

“We have done a lot of work defensively and we could put out a brand new back four, so a lot of the emphasis has been tightening things up defensively.”

The O’s boss is also keen to improve the home record, as that was another major factor in the club’s slide.

Orient won just six times at the Matchroom and suffered 11 home defeats – equal worst in the division along with Hartlepool.

“Absolutely, we have got to improve our home record,” admitted the Orient boss.

“It’s something that we can do, because there were probably seven games last season at home where we were winning at half time, but ended up losing or drawing them. The problem we had was not dealing with the second half.

“It was not a question of us getting murdered, because we got ourselves into winning situations, but not holding on and that does need attention,” he said.