Jobi McAnuff has called on his Leyton Orient team mates to take pride in doing the basics as they look to record their first National League victory of the season against Maidstone United tonight.

The O’s threw away two points on Saturday after conceding a late equaliser against Barrow, meaning they have now drawn their opening three matches of the season.

It was the second time in the space of four days that Orient had conceded a late equaliser, after Corey Whitely’s 91st minute strike secured Ebbsfleet United a point at Brisbane Road last Tuesday.

Orient have certainly played well in patches in all three of their matches so far, but a mixture of poor defending and an inability to take their chances has proved to be costly.

McAnuff is a man who knows what it takes to win promotion, having been a part of the Reading squad which won the Championship title in May 2012, and believes Orient need to focus on the ‘little details’ if they want to be challenging at the top of the National League.

Speaking after Saturday’s result against Barrow, McAnuff said: “It was very disappointing. It’s another late one. We spoke about it in there because that’s going to be the difference this season between being right up there and being mid-table. We don’t want that again this year.

“It’s those little details. From my experience and playing at a bit of a higher level that’s all it is. Teams that do the basic things are sometimes passed over and people don’t deem them as important. But that’s what wins people leagues and that’s what gets people promotion. We need to really make sure we fine tune that.

“We appreciate what those fine details are and buy into the fact that they will win us games. It might not always be a great piece of play. It could be a simple thing of defending a throw in. We have to take pride in that and make sure we see games out.”

Orient currently sit in 13th place in the National League on three points going into tonight’s game against Maidstone, who were beaten by Halifax on Saturday.

Against both Salford and Ebbsfleet, Orient have had plenty of chances to wrap up all three points before the 90 minute mark, with James Alabi, Josh Koroma and Macauley Bonne all squandering presentable opportunities in both games.

However, while admitting that Orient should have more points on the board, McAnuff feels there have been positives to take and believes it is only a matter of time before the O’s pick up their first win.

“On the balance of play, certainly against Salford we felt we should have won the game,” he said.

“Tuesday was a little bit different as they would have been very unfortunate to go home with nothing.

“In terms of the second half display and being 2-1 up, of course we felt we should have won the game. There’s dropped points there but as I say, we are aware of the situation and are trying to build. It’s another game unbeaten to start the season and that’s exactly what we wanted.

“We want to build and if we get a couple of good results next week, all of a sudden this week doesn’t seem that bad. We’re certainly moving in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re more than capable of doing it and have got a lot of lads that are disappointed in there tonight, which is, of course, a good thing. That will help that motivation for Tuesday.”