Kevin Lisbie celebrates after scoring the winner against Shrewsbury Town. Pic: SImon O'Connor

O’s look to make progress in the FA Cup

After missing seven matches with a hamstring injury Orient striker Kevin Lisbie could not have returned at a more hectic time for the club.

The 34-year-old emerged as the goalscoring hero on Saturday when he bagged both goals in Orient’s 2-1 win against Shrewsbury.

Now Lisbie faces a hectic week on the road as Orient travel to play Gloucester City tonight (Wednesday) in the first round of the FA Cup, followed by their longest trip of the season to Carlisle United at the weekend and then another midweek match at Portsmouth next Tuesday.

But after a spell on the sidelines the travelling is the least of Lisbie’s worries.

“Gloucester is a massive game for the club,” said Lisbie. “It spurs us on a bit with the fact that if we win we get another non-league side [Alfreton Town] and if we do it right and take the games seriously we should get through those two, but we have got to prepare properly.”

After pushing his body through 90 minutes on his return against Shrewsbury Town, Orient boss Russell Slade might be tempted to put his star striker on the bench tonight.

But Lisbie is happy to play if he gets the selection nod: “Will I play against Gloucester? You will have to ask the manager,” he smiled.

“I’ll do exactly what the manager tells me to do and what my body tells me to do, but when you are out you don’t want to think about being rested.

“I just want to play as many games as I can and if the manager feels he needs to rest me then I will do exactly what the manager tells me.”

Lisbie was pleased there was no recurrence of his injury after 90 minutes of action on Saturday. “My hamstring feels good, but my lungs didn’t feel too good towards the end,” he said.

“But that will come with playing games again and hopefully the more games I play the fitter I will become.”

Saturday’s win, Orient’s first in five games, helped lift some of the gloom around Brisbane Road and proved to be the perfect tonic as O’s head into FA Cup action.

“It was important to get the league win to take the heat and pressure off that situation and now we can go into the Gloucester game with a real focus and a chance of getting through to the next round,” said Slade.