Why a View from Downstream?

Stupid name! Was that the best you could come up with? If you just give me a second to elaborate on the name of this blog everything will become clear. Clear as sausage broth. Using one of the more self-explanatory Swedish sayings this blog will probably spring upon you from time to time. At least if you visit here more than once.

Living in Stockholm every Orient game is an away game. Which probably explains why the only game I have seen Orient live this season was at the Lamex Stadium. Nothing like a trip to Stevenage to brighten up your day eh?

My view of another goalless performance from Robbie Simpson usually comes from the mouth of Dave Victor. Or, when Orient Player is acting up which has been known to happen, from some other biased Englishman albeit with a harder to understand accent. Thank God Hartlepool got relegated to League Two.

The things your mind sees from an Orient Player stream and the same event viewed on the extended highlights (if my English was better I would call that a misnomer) on the Sunday often vary wildly. Where Dave Victor shouted off the bar! in reality it hit the foot of the post. This is not criticism of Dave. In fact if/when I finally meet him in person I will pat him on the top of his head and say: Good work! Because it really is! I could pay a few hundred Swedish crowns per month and have access to televised Premier League games every weekend. Instead I pay for Orient Player and highlights a day later. And why? Because for me listening to Orient is far more enjoyable than watching any PL-team, let alone West Ham.

I wasn't at Oxford but I listened to the game live. Jumping madly around the living room when Lee Steele scored. Some of my best football memories have come sitting in front of a computer. A bit sad but true non the less.

My point with all of this being that writing a match report based only on what you have heard is a recipe for getting things wrong. That's why you'll never get player ratings on this blog, or angry rants about some refereeing decision. I just don't have the power Captain! I'm too far away from the action so to speak.

But even the simple act of following Orient via audio stream has changed over the years. In the beginning there was Player and the Message Board. Plus some kind of goal service. Now you have the live blog and twitter. The problem being that these two are always ahead of Orient Player. Updating your twitter feed at the wrong time can spoil the game. A first world problem if there ever was one I suppose.

As many others I have more or less left the Message Board. It never really recovered from the hacker incident and the change of platform. Not really a big loss since the Orient supporters on twitter make up for it by being a nice friendly community.

Being on twitter following things Orient it's impossible not to end up on the View from the West Stand Blog or having Matt Simpson in your timeline. So in the time honoured tradition of Standing On the Shoulders of Giants I named this blog View from Downstream to steal credit from that well known blog . It could even be seen as a kind of homage. But nah, I'm not into that.

In Sweden the season for football start in the beginning of May and end in early November. This overlap meant that growing up I watched a lot of English football since this was what was shown on TV in those days. I wish I could say that I discovered Orient back then. Late seventies, early eighties but sadly I didn't. It was an article in a Swedish morning paper, published in the early 90's that started me on the way to being a proper Orient supporter. Following a club from afar in the pre-internet days usually was scores in the paper and the occasional league table. Things have gotten easier and since 2005 I have been writing about Orient on various forums and such. Mostly on Svenska Fans but always in Swedish. This then is my attempt at getting better known among the true Orient fans. The born and bred supporters. Using my skills at Swenglish to, if not entertain you at least not bore you out of your minds.

If you follow me on twitter there have been a fair amount of tweets about Norrtulls SK my local club here in Stockholm. Last year they had a fantastic season that ended in promotion to Division 5. Which doesn't match that position in the English pyramid but a great achievement all the same. When their season start you will be getting news on twitter as NSK take on teams like Atletico Nacka, Boo FF, FK Bromma, Gustavsbergs IF, Handelskamraternas IS, Hanvikens SK, IF Lokomotiv Blackeberg, Långholmen FC, Reymersholms IK, Saltsjöbadens IF, and Sickla IF.

So if strange sounding team names from the lower leagues of Sweden are your thing things will heat up as the weather gets warmer. Hopefully this will coincide with a new memorable game in which Orient secure promotion. When they do stop by here for my View from Downstream.








Clear as sausuage broth is the Swedish version of Clear as mud. Knowledge! Isn't it a wonderful thing?