THE BOOKMAKERS may have Orient amongst the favourites for relegation ahead of the 2009/10 season but skipper Stephen Purches believes his side is well equipped to prove the odds setters wrong.

Geraint Williams' men find themselves as short at 3/1 to suffer a return to League 2 with some bookies, but Purches points to the O's successful end to the last campaign and he insists a similar show of hard work this term will also lead to success.

The right back said: "We're going to have to put in the same amount of effort and hard work that we did last season.

"I think we put that in throughout the season - results weren't going our way to start with, but we stuck at it and kept believing that things would turn round.

"It did in the end and we've got to take that belief into the new season.

"You get used to the bookmakers writing you off - it's the same every year.

"They can have a guess, but it's down to us to make sure we don't let ourselves get into that situation and that we put a good season together."