Pete Gill says he is ‘loving’ his time in charge of Leyton Orient’s U18s after a successful season on the pitch for the club’s youngsters.

The U18s won the Merit League Two division two weeks ago with victory against Plymouth Argyle at Brisbane Road, while a number of the club’s youngsters have featured in the O’s match-day squads this campaign, with Charles Clayden even making his Orient debut against Gateshead on the final day of the season.

Second year scholar Ruel Sotiriou has also featured for the O’s this campaign, making six appearances as a substitute, and given the plethora of young talent coming through the academy, Gill is enjoying his time at the helm after taking over from Danny Webb earlier this season.

He said: “This is my third season at the football club. It’s my second year working with the U18s. Last season I started off as youth development phase lead coach which is the U13s to 16s, while assisting and helping on a daily basis with the U18s. When things happened last year and Omer (Riza) moved up and Richard Thomas moved on, I then took over the U18s till the end of the season last year.

“At the start of this season, I assisted Danny. Now Danny has moved up, the baton has been passed to me to lead the U18s. I’m absolutely loving it. I love going into work every day and I’ve known this particular group of players for three years now.

“When you are supported by a great group of people around you and you’ve got great players and characters to work with, it means that it doesn’t feel like I’m going into work every day. I’m really passionate about getting as many boys over the line as we can and hopefully, some of them represent Leyton Orient’s first team. Hopefully some of them will go higher. But I’m just really passionate about improving every single player so they fulfil their potential.”

A successful campaign in the Merit League Two division was capped off two weeks ago when Orient beat Plymouth 3-1 to be crowned league champions.

Hector Kyprianou’s double and a superb second half strike from Amin Benyoucef secured the win in front of the Orient faithful at Brisbane Road, with Harry Downing’s second half penalty proving to be nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.

When the U18s lost their first two league games of the campaign, some may have thought their chances of winning the title were over and Gill was full of praise for the character his team have shown over the course of the season.

“As I said before, the actual achievement of winning a league isn’t what youth development is about,” he said.

“However, it should be said that two months ago, we decided to put a real psychological test on the players and we demanded that they had to win the league. Therefore, for them to actually do it and get over the line, was really pleasing.

“The thing that does make it really pleasing and special for the players, is that they are predominantly, a first year scholar group. Throughout the Merit League 2 campaign, we had one second year playing and the rest were all first years and some U15s and U16s. That was the most pleasing side of it. It was a nice way to end the season.”