Orients Kevin Lisbie opens the scoring against Bury on Saturday

Orient boss Russell Slade has told his players to “keep the summer alive” as they look to extend their eight-game winning run at home to Scunthorpe United on Saturday.

The red-hot O’s achieved their best run of consecutive league and cup victories in 51 years when they won 2-0 at Bury at the weekend.

Slade’s men are now just five points off a play-off place in League One and the manager has challenged them to maintain their phenomenal form.

Slade said: “We want to keep the momentum going.

“It was not so long ago that we lost four games on the bounce, so we know these things can turn around quickly.

“All teams have purple patches at some stage of the season and you’ll need to look in a crystal ball to know what’s going to happen.

“But I want us to maintain our form and keep showing consistency.

“I keep saying to my players: ‘Let’s keep the summer alive.’

“I’ve enjoyed some good unbeaten runs in my managerial career – at Scarborough, Yeovil and Orient – but I don’t recall having eight successive wins before, so this is probably a record run for me.”

While Slade is keen to acknowledge the efforts of the squad as a whole, he believes one man has played a key role in the unbeaten run – Kevin Lisbie.

The striker scored both goals at Bury last weekend despite feeling under the weather.

That brace made it seven goals in as many outings for the 34-year-old.

And his manager is eager to pour praise on his hitman.

Slade said: “Kevin wants to play, he’s a leader, he scores goals and retains the ball very well.

“He also still has that yard of pace that allows him to get down the side of players.

“He was playing well before this run of wins but the goals were the only thing missing.

“I said after the 1-0 defeat at MK Dons in November that we were only inches away – not miles away but inches away – from getting things right.”

Saturday’s visitors Scunthorpe find themselves just one place off the bottom of League One after a season of struggle that has seen Brian Laws return as manager following the departure of Alan Knill.

But Slade insists there is no chance of his players taking anything for granted at Brisbane Road this weekend.

He said: “This game is a massive test for us.

“You look at Scunthorpe’s squad and it makes you wonder what they’re doing down there at the bottom.

“They have under-achieved so far this season, so there’s no way anybody will be taking them lightly.”

Meanwhile, Slade has expressed his delight that the O’s have been drawn at home against his old side Yeovil in the Johnstone’s Paint trophy southern area semi-finals in January.

He said: “We wanted a home draw – and we got one, so we’re happy with that.”