Leyton Orient v Harrogate Town: Paul Thirlwell unconcerned by recent form ahead of 'tough' test

The Wetherby Road outfit, who were promoted as National League play-off winners this summer, head to Leyton Orient on Saturday having taken just two points from the last 15 on offer.

They will do so without Simon Weaver, still self-isolating following a positive Covid-19 test result, though the man who will take charge in his boss’s absence believes that the Town players can approach the game happy with their efforts to date.

“Results haven’t gone our way of late, but we’ve been in every single game,” Thirlwell said.

“For the most part of the season, the lads have done really well. You think of where we’ve come from, we’re in a brand-new league for the first-ever time and if someone had offered you 12th place after 12 games and you’ve just come off the back of a positive second-half performance at home, I think we’d have taken that all day long.

“We’ve been in every game and lost the games we have lost by the odd goal. We just want to look at the scenario of onwards and upwards from the second-half performance [against Crawley].”

The form of Town’s hosts this weekend has been similarly sketchy of late, Orient having lost four on the spin in all competitions, two of those defeats coming in League Two.

But, despite that losing streak, Thirlwell says there is no danger of Harrogate taking Ross Embleton’s team lightly.

“They’ll definitely be a threat, they’ve got some really good players,” he added.

“They haven’t had the results of late that they’d like, but they’ve been in every game.

“I’ve watched a fair bit of them, the gaffer has watched a fair bit of them, they’ve got some really good attacking players and they can score goals, so we know it’s going to be a really difficult game, especially going down there.

“They were the club a couple of years ago who everybody looked at as the benchmark to get out of the National League and they’ve gone back into the Football League and held their own, which is naturally what we will be looking to do this season.

“We’re under no illusions, it’s going to be a tough game."