Leyton Orient player-manager Kevin Nolan hopes the club can complete the signing of Mansfield Town defender Nicky Hunt within the next couple of days.

It is believed Hunt was at Brisbane Road today and the O's are close to completing a deal for the experienced right-back until the end of the season.

Nolan said: "Obviously he's someone we're really interested in and hopefully we will see some positive news in the next 48 hours. Maybe there will be a couple but Nicky's one we're certainly interested.

"I think I said last week we've got a lot of options in the forward line and the midfield. In the defensive line we haven't got too many options. We managed to get [Shaun] Brisley in last week and we're hoping to get one or two more in before the window shuts."

Nolan suffered his first defeat in charge of the side after losing 3-1 to Cambridge United this afternoon.

The new boss was critical of his side's defending as mistakes cost them dearly.

He said: "I just think the basics tonight were very sloppy. In the first ten or 15 minutes you don't want to gift a side that's come to your turf a goal and that's what we did.

"That's majorly disappointing and I think in the second half we started trying to build up a bit of momentum and then one long ball and one mistake from Connor [Essam]. I've spoke to the lad and it was a snowball effect with two, three or four mistakes."

Nolan added: "I've said to the lads if you're playing at this level you can't afford to make mistake after mistake because if you do that you're going to get punished and we did.

"We got punished today and I don't think it was through Cambridge's great play. I think it was through us not doing well what we've done over the last two games before this."