ALMOST exactly a year ago today, the O’s fans were on cloud nine, writes Fan’s View columnist Mat Roper.

Ian Hendon, a former ex-player had taken the reigns and we sat proudly at the top of League Two with a haul of 12 points from four games. We all know what happened next, so perhaps the less said about that the better, but this time around we have started strongly again under the guidance of Messrs Hessenthaler and Edwards, Saturday’s win at Blundell Park (assisted by the rather apt all-at-sea Mariners defensive frailties) gave us two wins in five days and a place just outside the dotted line for promotion, although why the media put that in so early these days is beyond me.

What does all this mean? Well, the optimists are probably trumpeting the fact that we can easily storm the league and have promotion sewn up by the time we are scoffing our Easter Eggs in 2017, whilst the pessimists are probably doing the calculations of how many points we need to avoid the drop.

Either way, it’s a good start and most of us should perhaps just be happy we are now on a “roll” and tinge that with a bit of reality so that in case we don’t end up achieving the president’s very clear target of automatic promotion this time around then we are not too upset in about eight months’ time.

The burning question on most O’s fans’ lips, though, perhaps, is whether anything has really changed from last year. There are already questions over team selection (Simpson, McCallum, Moore and Semedo) in that some of the starting XIs don’t quite make sense, and here is why.

Last year’s top goalscorer Jay Simpson has been both “unavailable” and had a back injury while McCallum has been selected, then not. In fact, these two front men have been in and out so much already this campaign I fully expect them to be performing at the national hokey cokey championships.

That brings me onto Sandro Semedo. Now, don’t get me wrong, this young lad has performed admirably and it is fantastic to see some of our promising youngsters breaking into full first-team action, but why after purchasing two registered left-backs are we selecting a young left winger with little experience as a player (and even less as a defensive wide man). If it was the two Andys’ plan to convert Semedo into a raiding left-back then why would you spend some of your budget on two players who are fully capable of playing in that very position?

Last year, we had revelations that the president’s influence extended a little bit further than writing the cheques. There can be no doubt that no matter which side of the Becchetti fence you are on, having the team selection by either those in suits or by a committee is going to derail any good work done by those with proper coaching qualifications and managerial experience.

For now, we’ll relax a little and smile at the League Two table – after all there aren’t many times you see 20 other teams below the mighty Leyton Orient – and perhaps afford ourselves a little pipe dream of a minimum one place higher come May.

It would be rude not to.