Paul Tisdale's Programme Notes - Leyton Orient

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to St James' Park for the Coca Cola League One visit of Leyton Orient.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Russell Slade and the players, officials and travelling supporters of Leyton Orient and we wish them a safe journey home this evening.

Russell was only appointed on Monday but we can't underestimate the galvanizing impact a change of management can have on the fans and players. He took charge of Brighton at a similar time last season and managed to keep them in League One thanks to a late run of good results and he will be looking to do the same with Orient.

This season we seem to have faced teams with newly-appointed managers on a surprisingly regular basis and we are in no doubt that we will have to be at our best this afternoon to pick up valuable points at The Park.

Since I last penned my programme notes we have recorded two very pleasing performances. To beat promotion-chasing Colchester at home and then pick up a point away to an in-form Brentford side shows what an effective team we are currently.

Another positive from the Easter Weekend was the numbers in which you turned out to support us. We took just short of 1000 fans to Brentford and we saw another bumper crowd at The Park against Colchester. The effect these positive voices have on the players is not to be underestimated and they really do appreciate it.

We have suffered quite a few injuries in recent weeks with Alex Russell, Barry Corr, Rob Edwards and Richard Logan all having to miss games. But it has just highlighted the importance of having a squad with players fit and ready to go when they are needed.

The Reserve games are keeping the players' match fitness up and giving everyone a chance to force themselves into the reckoning. The Reserves have been in fine form this season and they host Southampton on Wednesday (7pm kick off) at St James' Park.

On Monday night we make the relatively short trip to The County Ground to face Swindon Town. (7:45pm kick off) Danny Wilson's side are really pushing for promotion to the Championship and this match is sure to be a high-quality encounter.

Finally I would just like to thank you all for your tremendous support in recent weeks and we would love to see as many away of you as possible at The County Ground in two days time.

Paul