Alan Dunne believes Saturday’s trip to Dagenham & Redbridge will prove harder than Orient’s game against Championship outfit MK Dons on Tuesday.

The O’s suffered disappointment after two late goals sent them to defeat in the Capital One Cup first round.

But former Millwall defender Dunne insists his new club will face a tougher challenge against their local rivals when they return to League Two action this weekend.

Dunne said: “It will be a totally different game to tonight. It will be a harder game than tonight, no doubt about it. It will be a League Two game; it will be a scrap and direct.

“I know Wayne (Burnett)and what he’s about and he’ll have them at it. It will be a difficult game but with the quality we’ve got in the team, that we showed tonight, there’s no doubt we can go there and beat them.

“It’s not too far and it’s a derby game and you could hear the fans tonight were great. They made a lot of noise and you need them throughout the season.

“You need them home and away because they’re a big part of any successful team. They’ll be right behind us at Dagenham and it will help us to try and push on and get the points we need.”

The 32-year-old, who had pent his entire career at Millwall, moved across London to join Orient this summer.

Dunne is a little behind his team-mates’ fitness levels after missing the start of pre-season. He made his first start for the O’s against MK Dons and believes he is not far away from being up to speed.

He said: “It was really pleasing to get my first start. I’m still getting back to full fitness and that was my second near 90 minutes so I’m getting there fitness wise. I’m training every day and want to be in the team. I was left-back tonight and put a good shift in.

“I felt we were comfortable as a back four and then I got cramp towards the end so had to come off in the last five or six minutes. It was disappointing but pleasing for myself in my own performance because I felt I did ok tonight.”

Dunne added: “I’m about two weeks behind the lads now but I played a lot of football last year and have a lot of experience so I’m generally ok.

“I just need a bit more sharpness here or there which needs polishing up but I’m getting there and tonight was a good 85 minutes for me.”

Despite the disappointment of losing at the death, Dunne believes avoiding extra time could prove beneficial at the weekend.

He said: “The league’s our priority and always will be. It would have been nice to get a result tonight but it’s all about Saturday and we wouldn’t have wanted extra time to take into Saturday after we put up a really hard working performance tonight.”