Orient boss admits home form is a concern during bedding-in process for newly assembled squad
Orient's early-season malaise on home soil continued in their Saturday lunchtime assignment with Wycombe Wanderers and boss Richie Wellens concedes there is work to be done to put it right.
The O's were very hopeful of shifting the dial in their fortunes at Brisbane Road after defeats in their first two league games and a league cup reverse to Bradford City in midweek - especially as they were up against a Chairboys team without a win to their name.
But after a bright start, they conceded a soft goal to put themselves on the back foot and although they hit back in a fairly even game, they lost 3-2 to increase the frustration of home fans still waiting to celebrate three points at the Betwright Stadium.
Wellens believes his team will soon turn the corner but acknowledges a big summer turnaround in personnel is making it a challenge to strike a winning formula.
"Of course it's difficult having to work with a different set of players," Wellens told Capital Football. "Getting to know people's characters, getting them to build relationships on the pitch, understanding the chemistry between them. It's a challenge.
"If you give a manager a blank cheque book and ask him to go and spend £60m on each position, it's still difficult bedding in. That's why some of these players that have moved for tens of millions of pounds have not been successful. So at our level, bedding in 16-17 new bodies every transfer window is very very difficult.
"It's a challenge but we've done well at it in the past and we want to do it well in the future."
The O's boss continued: "We need to up our home form. We'll be decent away from home this year. The players enjoy playing away from home but something needs to change at home.
"We have to concentrate on the process and try and get individuals better and the team playing better.
"It is concerning [the home results] because it's like 'how do we change the feel?' But you can't just be reactive where you win and everybody's happy and you lose and everybody wants to rip everything up and start again. You have to go through processes.
"I think we've got a chance - the nucleus of a good team. But it's a process. People have to learn things. Some are playing at this level for the first time. We're still getting players up to speed. But we need to improve the atmosphere in the stadium."
Looking back at what went wrong against Wycombe, Wellens added: "Moments were against us today. You look at their three contacts in the box and they score from them. We've missed two free headers that we had. So we didn't take our moments, they did.
"Overall I thought we were pretty good. We had a tiny little wobble after each goal but it wasn't as sustained as in the Barnsley game. We kept going until the end and fought hard.
"We need to be a little bit cuter and clever around the edge of the box and need to make their keeper work more. We missed those two headers and hit the bar, then they scored out of nothing with a mistake that Isaac [Hayden] has probably never done before. On another day, we'd probably win that game."
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