First win and a clean sheet keeps Ryan happy

Goalkeeer Ryan Allsop believes the next few days provide Orient with a great opportunity to turn their home form around.

Russell Slade’s side managed to win just six of their 23 league games at home last season and although the O’s have played just one of their opening six fixtures at the Matchroom this term, that ended in a 1-0 defeat.

Boosted by Saturday’s win at Swindon, O’s now face successive home games against Brentford tomorrow (Thursday) and Yeovil next Tuesday and Allsop hopes the side can build on Saturday’s win.

“Brentford are a good side and are on a decent run, so it isn’t going to be easy,” admitted Allsop.

“But the home form is something we want to get right and hopefully now we are up and running we can get another win.”

The 20-year-old keeper believes that the victory against Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon could be the catalyst needed to kick-start the season and hopes Orient can take that form into the derby game.

“It was a massive turning point at Swindon. It was much-needed and much-deserved to be fair,” he said.

“The lads worked hard all game. In the build-up we had worked really hard and it was always coming, the lads deserved the victory, it was a case of our efforts paying off.

“There has been a buzz in training this week and the win has lifted the lads a lot.”

Saturday’s success provided a double celebration for Allsop – as well as O’s recording their first win, he kept his first-ever clean sheet as a professional.

The keeper, who joined from Millwall in the summer, has played three games this season as first choice Jamie Jones continues to struggle with a shoulder injury.

“It was my first professional clean sheet, so I was happy with that and the back four and the whole team worked hard for it,” he said.

“It was good for us to score from open play too, it was always coming and we started creating more chances, but it was nice to get it done.”

With Jones out for at least another month and Lee Butcher still side-lined for the foreseeable future, the youngster now has a chance to establish himself in the side, something that he is hungry to do.

“Personally, it is great to be in the side and in the number one jersey and I’m going to do my best to keep it,” said Allsop.

“Obviously, when Jamie comes back he is going to want to take it back, so we’ll push each other which is only good for the team.”

Meanwhile, Allsop and his team-mate Ryan Brunt were treated to a visit by John Maguire, star of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), at the O’s training ground this week, ahead of his fight later this month in Nottingham.

He put the pair through their paces and gave them an insight into the life of a UFC Star.

“It was great to come down to Leyton Orient to meet the players and train with a few of them,” said Maguire.

“Mixed martial artists and footballers both need high levels of fitness and conditioning and it’s always interesting to see how other sports train.

“Hopefully we both learnt something and it would be great to see some of them at my fight in Nottingham on September 29.”

Tickets for the UFC event at the Capital FM Arena, Nottingham are available from UFC.com