The final whistle goes at Brisbane Road in front of 5,700 people on Saturday.

The boos start to ring out from the home faithful. Ian Hendon turns into the tunnel, leaving the chants of ‘Hendon Out’ blasting from the South Stand.

Frazer Shaw slowly but sternly claps the fans, taking almost a minute to watch the several angry fans shouting for him and his teammates to ‘get out of our club’.

Scattered applause comes from the fans that remained in their seats, although many had walked out to a chorus of ‘Is there a fire drill?’ from the boisterous travelling fans.

Several hours later, news started breaking that Ian Hendon had taken charge of his last Orient game. It was a sad way to end a spell that had started with such promise, a good pre-season followed by a soaring league start, which garnered five wins in five games.

It was inevitable given the lack of signings that Hendon had been granted by the owner and the arrival of a new technical director further undermined him.

The question now remains, who replaces him? I want Andy Edwards.

I think this is an excellent time to take the risk and appoint him. We’re sat in 11th in League 2, a division which only has two relegation spots. There is a 20 point gap over the team in the final relegation place, Yeovil.

Barring an incredible final half of the season, there is no chance that we will get relegated so this second half of this season is a fantastic opportunity to start to build something, especially if we put no pressure on immediate promotion this year so that we can build a legacy.

Furthermore, it is common knowledge that Francesco Becchetti is not putting loads of money into the playing staff, and Orient have a solid crop of young players coming through the academy at the moment.

Scott Kashket has been the big breakout player, having made 17 appearances this term, albeit many of them as substitute appearances. He hasn’t always been able to make a big impact but has showed some quality at times, in particular his classy equaliser against Oxford.

Also looking promising is Freddy Moncur who has played well in the handful of appearances he has made, and 18-year-old Victor Adeboyejo who struck fear into Scunthorpe in his FA Cup substitute appearance, as well as Charlie Grainger who has been around the team so long that you forget he is still only 19. He bounced back from a torrid league debut against Exeter to impress in the periods where Alex Cisak hasn't been able to play.

We have some talented youth players coming through and who else will be able to bring them through like Edwards. He will have watched them play for years and it makes sense to continue their development with Edwards at the helm.

More importantly too, if we are not spending on new signings, then bringing players from the youth academy is a sensible strategy and one that works within reason.

And not only that, but Edwards has done an excellent job as the Orient youth manager. Only last season he led the Under-18 team to become champions of the Merit League 2 Division and the team are currently sitting in third place in the Football League Youth Alliance Under-18 South East division.

He has done a wonderful job as the Orient Academy Director, and someone who harbours ambitions to be involved in the first-team, previously stating in October 2014 he hoped he would be involved in the first team again in the future after a brief spell as assistant manager to Kevin Nugent.

The main argument against Andy Edwards will be his lack of experience. Having only worked at Orient, after spells as St Albans assistant manager and a coach at the Arsenal Academy, he has never managed a first team but when you look at the club in the last 18 months, having gone through five managers, would names like Ian Holloway, Lee Clark and Chris Powell join us? I personally can’t see why they would.

For me, it makes complete sense to implement Edwards as manager and would be a just reward for a popular, long-serving and highly successful servant of Leyton Orient Football Club. It would be stupid to not consider him at the very least.