After witnessing Sammy Moore’s best game in an Orient shirt, including a memorable goal of the season contender and Orient’s first win since 29th August, I left Brisbane Road with a beaming smile following the 3-1 win over Notts County, a team that was relegated with us, but that unlike us, has not been shy about building an enormous squad (37 pros listed to Orient’s 20).

It’s no secret that after winning our first five games, many expected us to go on and walk the league, although those of us who have spent many years watching the O's in the professional basement know that it is far from easy to bounce straight back -11 years the last time.

So after more than ten games, I figured it would make sense to look at where we are and compare that to the stats that tell us where the respective clubs are in League 2.

• Man management: Ian Hendon, supported by an enlightened if rather more cautious, Francesco Becchetti, has effectively rebuilt the first team from scratch. That we are two points off top spot despite having a small squad and virtually scratch-built team, says an awful lot about his ability to find, select and motivate players.

• Tactics: After an outstanding August, teams started to do their due diligence on Orient (and the quality of opposition improved). As a result, the O's struggled in September, as Hendon’s favoured diamond formation proved more predictable and our strikers were better marked while we also lacked width.

So while still creating chances, we were struggling to put games away and score goals, scraping draws at Cambridge and Northampton and at home against Wycombe.

• Quality but lack of depth: The first 11 is clearly as good as any other team in this division, but it is far too small. With a serious knee injury to Paul McCallum, the forward line appears threadbare. Hendon has not been quick to rectify the lack of depth.

Lack of competition has seen some performances drop off. The lack of a suitable backup to Alex Cisak in goal (Charlie Grainger appears not to be ready), is puzzling. As winter draws in, this lack of depth will likely kill our promotion chances unless addressed.

The statistics of the season so far tell an interesting story. A great summary can be found here.

Along with Plymouth, Orient are the most effective attacking team in the league. However, defensively, we concede far too many goals as a percentage of shots faced.

This means that defensively we need to do a much better job of making it harder for opposition teams to score. Wycombe and Mansfield currently have the best ratio of shots faced before conceding, so we should look carefully at the things they are doing well.

The soft defence was very much in evidence during the home against Carlisle, where, despite dominating, we still managed to concede two sloppy goals.

In the light of the stats, it would seem Hendon is right to address defensive challenges first, bringing in full-back Adam Chicksen for his second loan spell at the club.

The club does need competition for places in every position and Hendon is working to address that, but to the pessimists I would say two things:

1. No team will easily walk over anyone else regularly in this division and neither will we…our squad size means we are punching above our weight at the moment.

2. Statistically speaking, improving our resilience at the back is the top priority. We need to become much harder to score against. Our shots-to-goals scored ratio is actually pretty healthy over the first 11 games, although, as with everything, it could improve.

I am sure that the season will continue to be positive, provided we address the most critical issue…a shortage of personnel!