New Leyton Orient boss Andy Edwards admitted dropping out of the Football League is a real possibility after taking over the reins from Alberto Cavasin.

The O’s have lost eight consecutive home games at Brisbane Road and they are only out of the bottom two in League Two on goal difference.

Speaking after the 3-1 defeat at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, the 45-year-old felt defending is something he needs to work on before the O’s return to league action at home to Accrington Stanley on Saturday, December 10.

“Relegation is a serious threat looking at where we stand now so we’ve got to address that aspect and try to find every inch we can to improve the side and make sure we’re safe first and foremost,” said Edwards.

“We’ve got to make sure everybody connected to the club sticks together because we are in difficult times.”

Cavasin’s language barrier was one of many issues he had during his time at the E10 club and Orient also recorded their heaviest defeat in 34 years when they were dumped out of the FA Cup following a 6-0 loss to Sheffield United.

When asked if it was frustrating not being able to get his style across when the Italian was in charge, the former Academy director was keen to stress he was focusing on the future.

“I’m not going to speak about what has happened previously. I can only look forward now and Danny Webb and I have ideas,” Edwards explained.

“I think initially will it be scintillating football being played? Probably not. I don’t think many teams down the bottom play their way out with a great style.

“We’re hopefully going to be resolute and hard to play against and we’ll get points on the board and then we can develop our way of playing as we become more successful.

“It is important however and which way we do it, that we just get some points.”

Set pieces have been a problem for the O’s since Ian Hendon was in charge of the club and they have adopted different defensive styles with each new manager.

Callum Kennedy admitted Edwards prefers man-to-man marking instead of Cavasin’s zonal system.

The new boss knows defending is one of their main problems as well as scoring up the other end of the pitch and still has to decide what will ultimately be his starting XI.

“The reason we are down the bottom is we are conceding too many and not scoring enough. We need to find a way of addressing that,” said Edwards.

“Our first focus is on being better defensively because I think we have only kept three clean sheets this season and that certainly needs to improve.

“We’re hopefully going to be hard to play against and we’ll get points on the board and then we can develop our way of playing as we become more successful.”