Rossi Eames and Henry Newman believe the signing of four players will help increase the competition for places as Barnet head to Leyton Orient on Saturday (3pm kick off).

The Bees’ management team wasted no time in bolstering their squad ahead of the January transfer window opening, signing Dan Sweeney, David Tutonda, Ricardo Santos and Simeon Akinola.

Santos and Akinola both started in Monday’s 1-0 win over league leaders Plymouth Argyle with Sweeney coming off the bench, and Newman expects the new boys to push the players already in the starting XI for their shirts.

“It’s been a lively couple of days, that’s for sure,” Newman said. “We’ve seen a lot of players looking around and thinking: ‘If I’m in the team I want to keep my spot in the team.’ If they’re not in the team they’re thinking: ‘I want to get my spot back in the team.’

“What we want to do is make sure we’re raising the calibre of the squad as a whole and each player we bring in is challenging players in that position so that we’re raising the performance of all players at the football club. That’s what you need to do if you want to push up the league.”

The Bees head to The Matchroom Stadium on Saturday to tackle an Orient side who were beaten 4-0 by Exeter City on Bank Holiday Monday.

“Leyton Orient is a London derby,” Eames said. “They will want to put things right but we’re in a good position and have a good positive mind set from Plymouth and we will look to build on that straight away.”

Newman added: “They’re quite an experienced side and they have some players there who have had good careers behind them with a couple of young players coming through too.

“They’re not dissimilar in terms of the make-up of their squad to us. There’s not many games in League Two, particularly this season, where you’re thinking you’re definitely going in with the upper hand and expecting points out of it.”

You can watch the full video interview below: