Leyton Orient’s major transfer blunder leaves them short of play-off *

Leyton Orient needed an excellent January transfer window if they were to finish in the top six in League One this season.

Leyton Orient made a mistake in the January transfer window that could end up costing them a League One play-off place.

Orient had one eye on the relegation zone at Christmas, but a remarkable run of form since the Boxing Day victory over Charlton has their fans dreaming of a top six finish.

Wins over Cambridge, Portsmouth, Bolton, Carlisle and Port Vale have seen the Os climb as high as eighth in the table in recent weeks.

However, the last two games, a 4-3 win over Northampton and a 2-1 defeat to Burton, have exposed an issue within Richie Wellens’ squad.

Orient entered the January transfer window with five centre-backs, namely Dan Happe, Omar Beckles, Brandon Cooper, Ed Turns and Adam Thompson.

Happe, who came through the club’s academy in 2017, and Beckles, the Chair of the Professional Footballers’ Association, have established themselves as Wellens’ first choice pairing.

The two were crucial to last season’s League Two title-winning side and deservedly kept their places for the current campaign

Cooper, meanwhile, was brought in on loan from Swansea in the summer, though he has since been made a permanent addition.

The 24-year-old impressed for a while at the Gaughan Group Stadium before receiving a red card for elbowing Derby County’s James Collins in December.

He found himself on the sidelines for several weeks after the incident and has only recently returned to the starting eleven due to an injury to Happe.

Turns and Thompson were both waved goodbye last month, despite not finding replacements, meaning that the Os have entered the all-important latter stages of the season with just three central defenders.

Turns, who was on loan from Brighton for the second year running, was unlucky not to have played more games before he was recalled.

He had shown the ball-playing ability that you would expect from a Seagulls player, as well as the maturity in his defending of a player much his senior.