ORIENT manager Geraint Williams will be hoping for a massive improvement when his side host Walsall on Saturday, writes TREVOR DAVIES. The O s boss was furious after his side lost 1-0 at the MK Dons last weekend with a limp, lifeless display. That was

ORIENT manager Geraint Williams will be hoping for a massive improvement when his side host Walsall on Saturday, writes TREVOR DAVIES.

The O's boss was furious after his side lost 1-0 at the MK Dons last weekend with a limp, lifeless display.

"That was as poor a game of football as I have seen this season in this league and we have fully played our part in it," he raged.

Disappointed

"I'm very disappointed with that performance. You have to earn the right to play and we didn't.

"I'm a firm believer that you get out of life what you put in it and we got out of it exactly what we deserved."

It was only when James Scowcroft came on towards the end that Orient started to threaten.

But it was too little too late, after they had conceded a soft first-half goal when skipper Stephen Purches and keeper Jamie Jones allowed Mark Carrington to nip in and head the only strike of the game.

Both players came under fire from the manager.

"You need to be positive in that situation," he said.

"If someone puts their head on it or the goalkeeper claims it, the situation is dealt with.

"If two people do nothing, it's a simple goal and it was a soft one to give away."

Orient went into the game having lost just once in their previous nine and a victory would have taken them past the 40-point mark.

MK Dons were hardly at their best and Williams believed it was a golden opportunity wasted.

"We have missed a chance I feel. I didn't think that MK Dons were anything that was insurmountable," he said.

"They didn't give us any problems that we shouldn't have solved, but we didn't and that's the disappointing thing.

"I thought there was something there for us in the game, but we have taken nothing and we didn't deserve to take anything either."

Now the O's boss will be looking for an improvement at the weekend and to build on their bright finish.

"For 15 minutes we had a right go at it, but you can't do 15 minutes in a 90-minute game and expect to come away and win matches," he said.

"We looked positive and put them under pressure, but that 15 minutes was the only time we looked like the Leyton Orient I have known this year.

"There is a lesson there for us and we have got to go away and regroup."

O's midfielder Jason Demetriou was baffled by Orient's sad showing.

"For a lot of the first half we didn't really seem to get out of our half did we?" he reflected.

"I don't know what it looked like to you, but that's how it felt. We started really poorly and we can't put a finger on it."

Demetriou knows that the side have got to get out of the blocks quicker.

"We just need to start better. I don't know what it is," he said.

"I don't think we had a shot in the first half. For a few games running we have started poorly, but at the end everyone is bombing forward and no-one feels unfit, so it can't be that.

"But we will keep working on it, look at the video and see if we can put a finger on it.

"We're all very disappointed. It was a nothing game. They were not at their best and neither were we, so a point would have done both sides.

"But now we're back in the dogfight and we need a couple of wins to clear us away from that," warned the midfield.

O's still have some vital clashes against sides near the foot of the table.

The bottom two - Stockport and Wycombe - still have to come to Brisbane Road, as do Hartlepool.

While O's were at Oldham on Tuesday night and also go to struggling Exeter next month.

"We have got to beat the teams around us. They are the games where we need three points," said Demetriou.