After two spells as interim head coach so far this season, Ross Embleton is delighted to have landed the role on a permanent basis.

Embleton started the campaign as an interim but went back into an assistant role during the tenure of Carl Fletcher as head coach. However, when Fletcher was sacked after just five games in charge of the club, Embleton reassumed the interim role in November 2019.

The boyhood Leyton Orient fan has guided the club for most of their first season back in the Football League but he is aiming to bring some stability to the side with the role now being permanent.

In an interview with the club website, he said: “It’s very difficult to describe the emotion of it all. There’s obviously been a lot of things go on this season that have found me in different circumstances, found the club in a different and sometimes difficult situation, but for it to now be a permanent decision is something that I am immensely proud of.

“I think I’ve gone on record of saying it before, it’s not particularly something I ever thought was going to happen to me for a number of different reasons. I suppose I never had it as a realistic target of mine. I suppose it would have been a hidden ambition but not necessarily one I ever felt would come off. To have sat here as an interim manager of a number of occasions was always a proud moment for me but to know that this football club wants me as its manager and to finally get it agreed and finalised is something that I’m incredibly proud of.”

As Embleton alluded to, landing the job on a permanent basis is something he did not particularly want at numerous stages throughout the season, but he feels that being in the interim role for an extended period of time changed his mind as the campaign progressed.

He said: “I think certainly when we came to the crossroad period before when I made the decision that I didn’t want to take the manager’s job on at that period, I didn’t feel as though I was in a position to be ready. I know some people will probably sit there and say ‘why in such a short period of time has that changed’.

“When you do things new and find yourself under a new pressure, it’s uncomfortable and you don’t find things great, so when the opportunity arose previously it wasn’t something I felt it was ready to do. But the fact I’ve been in it for that extended period of time now has helped me to review the fact that even when it’s not particularly all going swimmingly, I still feel capable of dealing with the pressure."