The injury-list at Brisbane Road has proven a particularly hot topic for discussion this season with the O’s seemingly having a non-stop conveyor belt leading to the treatment room.

One position where the club have been hit particularly hard has been between the sticks, with Russell Slade selecting three different keepers barely a month into the campaign.

However, while the number of goalkeepers on the sidelines has been far from the ideal for Orient, for one in their ranks it has been a window of opportunity.

Lee Butcher turned out 12 times for the E10 club last season and was given his chance again in August with Jamie Jones suffering from a shoulder problem.

However, with further injuries befalling loaned Spurs duo David Button and Ben Alnwick, Butcher’s run in the team has proven a longer one than most expected.

The 23-year-old has impressed on the whole and although he was kept out of Saturday’s draw with Hartlepool United due to a back problem, the stopper himself feels he has done well enough to warrant keeping his place.

“I started the season and then they brought David Button in,” explained Butcher after the Rochdale win.

“He got injured and I came back in for a couple more and then they got Ben Alnwick in and he got injured and now I am back in the team.

“I think I have done well enough to keep my place.”

A former Spurs custodian himself, Butcher says he has now got the buzz for first-team football and he is not ready to relinquish his starting spot just yet.

“Once you have had the taste, it is like a drug. You want to be playing,” he continued.

“I am just getting the experience with every game now – cracking on and just improving myself as much as possible.

“There is still loads more to improve but I have only just turned 23. This is my second season in real football as at Tottenham, I was just a training goalkeeper, and now I have stepped up to the plate and I am performing.

“All I can hope is that I carry on performing, keep the other keepers out of the team and keep that run going.”

While Butcher accepts that earlier this year he would have been considered the replacement keeper for the O’s, he insists he doesn’t want to be sitting on the bench and is desperate to play as much as he can.

Asked how many games he was aiming to play this season, he answered simply: “As many as I can. That is my target. As many as I can.

“I know you should really set targets but at the end of the day I have come in as a number two. But now I am playing, it is a great feeling.

“When I am sitting on the bench, it’s such a horrible feeling now. I have never felt like that. Even last year towards the end of the season when I had a few games, I just started to feel it.

“But now I am thinking, ‘I don’t want to be sitting on the bench’. I want to be out there playing, playing 90 minutes of football, getting my game time, getting my game up and playing as many games as possible in my career.”