Retrospective: Daggers 2 - 0 Orient

It's back to Victoria Road for Orient with the JPT draw turning up an away game against Daggers. To get some perspective I hastily translated my match report from Svenska Fans the last time Orient played Daggers away, back in 2010. My how things change!

Daggers 2 - 0 Orient

Wonderful. Fantastic. Enjoyable. Three superlatives that didn’t fit Orient in yesterday’s derby against Daggers. To be honest it was poor. Really poor actually.

With five matches played in League One, Orient’s points average says relegation battle - again. If they play like they did against Dagenham it’s what they deserve. Fair enough, injuries did weaken the back four who were terrible. Especially in the first half. Sure Orient should have had a penalty in the second. But this doesn’t hide the fact that crap like this, against teams like Daggers, mean you end up around teams like Daggers in the table, i.e. near the bottom.

Two headed goals from one of King Arthur’s failed knights, Sir Romain Vincelot. One in each half. This gave Daggers their first ever win in League One. The home team dominated the first half totally, and after their 2-0 early in the second their main objective seemed to be advanced time wasting. Despite this, they were closer to a third by hitting the crossbar, than Orient were pulling a goal back.

Russell Slade choose to not start with Mike Cestor in the absence of Charlie Daniels. Instead he opted for Jimmy Smith since it seemed to work against Brighton. Against Daggers it didn’t work at all. Slade made Smith and Elliot Omozusi switch sides after the interval. This helped somewhat. For those who wonder were Michael Liddle is, I can inform you that he was injured in his first game for Orient against Yeovil and is back at Sunderland for rehab. Without Daniels the problem at left back scream out for a solution. Play Cestor I say. He may be inexperienced but he’s a natural left back. Smith is a midfielder and it shows.

Orient were poor. As a man really poor. Alex Revell showed some good intentions but came off injured late in the game. His replacement, surprisingly enough, Adrian Patulea who got a place on the bench instead of the injured Jonathan Téhoué. The Count didn’t get much time on the pitch but he was about as poor as the rest of the team.

Next week Orient entertain top team Huddersfield at Brisbane Road. Orient logic say that we will probably perform well against them. Hope! The last thing to leave an Orient supporter.

Dagenham & Redbridge - Leyton Orient 2 - 0 (1 - 0)
League One, week 5, september 4, 2010
Victoria Road, attendance 4.195

Goal scorers: Vincelot 8, 50
Yellow cards: none

Orient: Jones; Smith, Forbes, Chorley, Omozusi; Chambers (Jarvis 72); Cox, Dawson, Spring; McGleish, Revell (Patulea 89)
Bench: Brown, Butcher, Porter, Cestor, Beautyman

From Bees to Bastards

So Orient lost this rather important football match. A solitary Trotta goal separated the two sides. Here’s my take on a game where I, for once, actually had a view from downstream.

If club crests ever where to start fights, the only way for Brentford to beat Orient would be if Wyverns turned out to be really allergic to bee stings. You know like some people are to nuts. Me I’m probably allergic to Alan McCormack. I find him really hard to swallow.

McCormack being one of two players on the pitch yesterday with ‘get out of jail free’ cards somewhere in their kit. The other one being Nathan Clarke. Perhaps Captain Fantastic plays like this every game. In that case I salute him for having powers of misdirection greater than many a professional illusionist. But what I usually hear is a lot different from what I saw. Walking off without a booking was lucky.

Lucky like Clayton Donaldson who seemed in a bad mood all game. Brentford fans have a point when they say Orient were favoured by the referee. But Donaldson could very well have been sent off when he stormed into that scuffle during the first half that saw him and Gary Sawyer receive yellow cards. As for who started it that’s easier - McCormack.

Speaking of things that are easy. The Orient front two was a case in point. Kevin Lisbie did a lot of running and tried to set up his team mates. Not complicating things but at the moment being let down by his goalscoring touch. David Mooney on the other hand has that touch but sometimes gives the impression that scoring simply isn’t enough. It has to be pretty as well. Frankly Moons we don’t care, just bang them in. Pretty can wait.

Romain Vincelot not only had a great game he has a pretty great beard as well. The only thing missing from his performance was a yellow card. The threat of that tenth yellow of the season hanging over the head of us supporters like the blade of a guillotine. Just pick it up already! Rip it off our worried minds like an old band-aid. Get those two games out of the way.

Marvin Bartley and Jamie Ness probably agree with me on the Vincelot suspension saga since that would mean more game time for the both of them. Orient have a strong bench at the moment. One that could cope with Vincelot sitting out two games. Looking at the names of substitutes this season compared to a few years back there really are names on there that can change games. Perhaps Robbie Simpson should have felt more at home sharing a bench with a selection of Geraint William’s players. He would have stood out like the obvious choice which is always a nice feeling.

As far as managers go my distinct feeling is that Brentford really need to finish in the top two. Warburton inherited a good team with tactics et.al. from Uwe Rösler. I don’t think he could guide a team successfully through the playoffs. Russell Slade could, I’m sure of that. But if I get a choice I’ll gladly let Warburton prove me wrong. When it comes to success for baldies my money is on Slade.

I do a lot of stupid things with my money. Gambling isn’t one of them. I do have an account on a large betting site though. With all of one hundred Swedish kronor on there. The only reason being that this gives access to reliable streams of football matches. Like Orient v Brentford. I still had Dave Victor on as commentator even though Orient World was a few seconds behind the TV images. As I understood it the Sky commentators were biased in Brentford’s favour. In those cases a sense of deja vu is preferable.

I would have preferred to win. But this loss most likely didn’t define our season. We don’t know yet what the 2013/14 season legacy will be. It may have been this game, or perhaps those three losses when Eldin Jakupovic went back to Hull. Losing Jamie Jones to injury. It may be a thing in the future. Vincelot’s tenth yellow card. Wolves at home. Promotion. A playoff final. Mooney scoring twenty league goals. There’s nine games left. History is yet to be written. Orient not ready to be written off even if Brentford and Wolves fans want that very much. It just isn’t true. It might even turn out to be false. Keep the faith you pessimistic bastards!