2018 A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A LEYTON ORIENT SUPPORTER Go to 2017. Other years: 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 A History of Leyton Orient FC 1965-1974 Leyton Orient Diary from 1893. 1 January. Away to Dagenham 0-0. An injury to McAnuff meant a start for Koroma and this was the only change from the starting line up for the last match other that the replacement of N’Gala by Happe. Koroma nearly got us off the mark with a punt which the goalie tipped over. The same happened at the other end when Widdowson was awol in the marking department. Clay had his shot put behind. Dayton got the ball in the back of the net but Bonne (I think) had fouled ex O Ling. Mooney was unlucky when his downward header was saved. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 25 Happe, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 4 Lawless, 9 Bonne, 10 Mooney, 19 Koroma, 27 Dayton. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 6 Sendles-White, 24 Harrold,(Mooney 74), 21 Dalby, 22 Moncur. Still; 19th but could go up four places if we beat Boreham Wood at home next Saturday. They are 8th. Video. 2 January. Rumour has it that Cheltenham striker Dan Holman will join us for the rest of the season. The 27-year-old returned to the Robins in December having been at Orient’s league rivals Boreham Wood where he made 14 appearances, scoring four goals, including their winner against League One club Blackpool in the FA Cup. He started his career at Braintree starting 58(14) games scoring 24 goals before being snapped up by Colchester though he did not start for them. When the U’s loaned him to Wrexham he did not play for them at all. Better luck at Aldershot, Dover, Woking and Cheltenham where he scored 16 goals from 18 starts before signing a contract for them in Aug 2016. After only five games for them this season scoring once, he was loaned to Boreham Wood. His last game was on the 23rd December. He arrived the next day. Also arriving from Newport County was wide man Lamar Reynolds, 22 who spent last season with Brentwood Town, scoring 28 goals and is a product of Jamie Vardy's V9 Academy. Formerly of Heybridge Swifts, Thurrock, Grays Athletic, Aveley and Barking, the pacey Reynolds created quite a bit of interest after his stint at the new academy set up by the Leicester City and England star. He has only started five games plus nine from the bench scoring one goal, strangely enough against Cheltenham! Take a look at these stats. He has only played 90’ three times this season. Good site for player stats but not too hot on team squads where we have Plasmati, Liburd, Alzate, Kashket, Lasimant, Abeboyejo and Dunne for us. Jamie Cureton has left Farnborough to sign for their Evo-Stik South rivals Bishop’s Stortford, whose fans helped make the switch possible. Boro were unable to continue paying the 42-year-old’s travelling expenses following his return to the club in April last year. The former Reading and Norwich City man’s wages at Bishop’s Stortford will be part- funded by the Blues Supporters’ Club’s 12th Man Appeal. Liburd has joined Guiseley on on permanent deal from Stevenage. Ex manager Omer Riza has signed for Newmarket. Striker Ruel Sotiriou played 90 minutes and scored on his début for Heybridge Swifts as they drew 3-3 with Waltham Abbey. Sam Sargeant joined Margate on a 28 day loan. Elokobi played half a match in a friendly against Cambridge. Sutton have signed Harry Beautyman from Stevenage for an undisclosed fee. 25-year-old Harry originally joined U’s in summer 2011 after being released by us, where he had been reserve team captai. He went on to score 24 goals in 105 games over the next two seasons, winning the Supporters’ Club Player of the Year award in his first season and earning recognition at England C level. He joined Welling, then in the Conference, in 2013 and subsequently earned a move in to the Football League with Peterborough the following year. He spent last season with Northampton before joining Stevenage in the summer. Manager Gary Alexander and assistant John Mackie resign from their positions at Greenwich Borough amid financial constraints. 6 January. Home to Boreham Wood. 0-0. Three games, no goals and 2 points out of a possible nine is not good. On the positive side four clean sheets from five matches. Someone tweeted that Clay’s game was rancid. Happe was preferred to N’ala, Harrold to Mooney and McAnuff returned from injury. Both newcomers started on the bench. The pitch was dire, no doubt through watering it before every match and at half time. Still with no home match for three weeks it has time to recover. Maybe Charile Hasler should be consulted? An instantly forgettable match. Though Reynolds looked lively when he came on and Widdowson had a good game amidst lots of team mates that didn’t. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 25 Happe, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 4 Lawless, 9 Bonne, 24 Harrold, 19 Koroma, 27 Dayton. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 33 N’Gala, 10 Mooney(Harrold 76), 34 Reynolds(Clay 72), 29 Holman. Still 19th with three points separating the five clubs above us. Away in the cup to Bognor Regis next. Video. The loans of Westbrooke and Coulson shoud expire before the end of the month. 8 January. Coulson, has agreed a two-and-a-half year deal. The O’s youngsters earned a point on Saturday as they started 2018 away at Gillingham Town in a 1-1 draw. Team: Arthur Janata, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Mason Hall, Teddy Perkins (Alfie Fleming 55), Shadrach Ogie, Jaedon Phillips (Eric Lopes 25), Ernold Haxhiu, Hector Kyprianou (Brendon Shabani 83), Charles Clayden, Amin Benyoucef, Sam Dalby. SUBS: Sam Amedu, Luca-Carter Henry. GOAL: Kyprianou (60). Sam Sargeant made his Margate début in a 1-1 draw aw-ay to Billericay Town. The O’s ‘keeper played the full 90 minutes. Sotiriou bagged another goal in the 37th minute to put Heybridge Swifts side 2-1 up. 9 January. The death of Ted Phillips was announced. He played for Ipswich in their championship winning team 1961-62 and went on to play 269 games scoring 161 goals before Benny Fenton bought him to E10 in March 1964. Despite playing in 36 matches and scoring 17 goals new manager Dave Sexton let him go to Luton in February 1965 where he only played 12 games but scored 8 goals before moving to Colchester playing 32 and scoring 13. He also holds the Ipswich season goalscoring record with 46 in the 1956-57 campaign, when they won the Third Division South title. Ted was 84. We signed 21 year-old midfielder Ebou Adams from Norwich U23 until the end of the season. He has had little in the way of league games during his loan to Shrewsbury with 2(6)apps no goals no starts in the league and played only 17 mins in the five League One matches. In the three cups matches for Shrewsbury he played 175 mins scoring one goal in the EFL Trophy. He hasn’t started a match since 23 September. He was signed by Norwich from Dartford loaned to Braintree then Shrewsbury. He is out of contract at the end of the season so may have something to prove? From the Eastern Daily Press: Signed from National League South side Dartford in January 2016, the box-to-box midfielder performed well for City’s under-23s last season, scoring six goals in 26 games to see the one-year option in his contract activated. 10 January. Westbrooke returned to Brentford, he was not used by Edinburgh. From the Club preview we learnt Holman was cup-tied for the match at Bognor, Judd was recovering from a hamstring injury, Lawless has a groin injury. Elokobi may return from injury and Adams may be handed his début. Still no news of Boco. 13 January. Away to Bognor Regis in the FA Trophy. 1-2 (Bonne, Koroma). Nothing in the Club brief so I can only presume Coulson, Dayton were rested. N’Gala and Elokobi replaced Coulson and Happe whilst Koroma replaced Dayton. Lawless was replaced by Adams and Koroma by Reynolds. Goalless at half time it took Bonne eight minutes from time to put us in the lead but not before Bognor were down to ten men. And not before we were down to ten when Widdowson was sent off for a second yellow. They equalised two minutes from time. In extra time Koroma, on for Adams, put us in the lead and into the next round to be played Feb 3rd. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 33 N’Gala, 5 Elokobi, 34 Reynolds, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 24 Harrold. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 25 Happe(Elokobi 60), 19 Koroma(Adams 72), 10 Mooney, 14 Judd(Harrold 85). Away to AFC Halifax next Saturday. Video. Former youth goalkeeper Jack Giddens joined Canvey Island for a month from Billericay Town. Giddens was named Fans’ Player of the Season and Manager’s Player of the Season in 2016 and has previously played for the likes of Aveley and Tilbury Is one of our problems that the midfield and backs are not scoring enough. Clay 4 from 26 for us, 5 from 74 for Grimsby, 1 from 35 for Motherwell and in all in league games 12 from 132(47) with one 1 from 16(7) in cup games. A goal every six games, good enough for a midfielder? Lawless is no better with 31 from 349(44) and four from 33(4). Caprice none from 142(29), Widdowson one from 310(12). 933(132) league games 44 goals from four players. That’s a goal every 24 games. Looking back 40 years is there much difference? 1977-78 we scored only 43 goals in 42 games and Kitchen (21) and Mayo scored 30 of them meaning excluding keeepers 16 players scored 13 goals. To compare todays players: Fisher and Roffey scored one apiece in 42 matches each already twice what Widdowson and Caprice have scored in their career. Bennett scored two from 24 and Grealish zero from 35(1). That means a goal every 35 games. That means this season goals for games is better at 25. We were drawn away to Dover in the next round of the FA Trophy. They are seventh in the table. Hartlepool need £200,000 ahead of the next pay day of 25th January. The club was in talks with McAnuff to extend his stay. The U18’s beat Peterborough at home 3-1. Team: Sam Amedu, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Shadrach Ogie, Mason Hall, Alfie Fleming, Hector Kyprianou, Ernold Haxhiu, Amin Benyoucef, Charles Clayden, Luca Carter-Henry, Eric Lopes. SUBS: Brendon Shabani, Jaedon Phillips, Will Sanders. GOALS: Clayden (2), Lopes. Royston Town boss Steve Castle said guiding Royston to their highest ever league position ‘means the world,’ after his Crows flew to consecutive 5-0 wins. Jay Simpson is not doing too well in the US. He has been in the squad: 32 times, Starting eleven: 4, Substituted in: 18, On the bench: 10, Suspended: 0, Injured: 1 and scored only one goal though he did score two in the US Open Cup against Harrisbury City back in June. Simon Church left Scunthorpe for Plymouth on a free. 20 January. The Club review said Lawless may return after his groin injury and Holman figured in a friendly at Dagenham and hoped to play. In the end it was all academic as the frost set in overnight and the match called off at 1030 am. This gave me a chance to update my Leyton Orient Diary. Flyde beat top of the table Macclesfied 6-0, above us Hartlepool lost to Wrexham and Woking to Solihull. At home to second placed Aldershot next Saturday. They drew 0-0 at home to Ebbsfleet. Les Gore born 21st January in 1914 but sadly died a day after his 77th birthday in 1991. This is an article I wrote for the Orientear last year: 51 Years Since The Death Of Loyalty In E10. From August 1949 to May 1966, long before the pasta people arrived the O's employed only four managers. Not that impressive until you realise that between August 1961 and May 1966 we had three. Alec Stock came from Yeovil following that club's success against Manchester United in February 1949 and stayed, on and off, for nearly ten years (Aug 49-Feb 1959) before leaving for QPR. He had been appointed Manager-Secretary of Yeovil towards the end of the 1945/46 season. Johnny Carey (Aug 61-Aug 63) stayed long enough to get us promoted and relegated to/from Division One and joined Nottingham Forest. The gaps were filled by Les Gore. Born in Coventry in 1914 his first professional contract was with Fulham but made his league début for Stockport County in 1936 and also played for Carlisle and Bradford City. He signed for us in 1939 playing in three games before the outbreak of war scoring on his début. In 1946 he joined Yeovil and met Alec Stock. He top scored for Yeovil that season with 25 goals and 12 following season coming second to top scorer Reg Swinfen on 31. He made his début for Gravesend & Northfleet on 21 August 1948 and scored his first goal for them five weeks later at home to Guildford City, one of three that season. In 1951 he joined us as assistant trainer making head trainer in 1954. His first stint of manager came between Feb-April 1956 when Stock left for the assistant managers job at Arsenal. Gore's record in this period was P10 W9 D0 L1 For 30 Against 11 Points 18. When he returned Stock presented him with a pen with his achievements inscribed on it. He was in charge when Tommy Johnston was signed from Newport County. We won promotion that season. He had a second stint from August 1957 to March 1958 when Stock left for Roma. We finished 15 th . When Stock left for the final time in February 1959 (to manage QPR) Les took over for the remaining fixtures finishing 17 th no doubt due to the sale of Julians to Arsenal and Woosnam to West Ham. Les ran the club for the whole of the following two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) finishing 10 th in his first season. During this time he signed Terry McDonald form West Ham whilst Jimmy Andrews joined Stock at QPR. In his second season we finished 19 th . Mark Lazarus wanted first team football and also joined QPR. In June 1960 he spent £8000 on Malcolm Graham. He swapped Alan Sealey for Dave Dunmore in March 1961. Johnny Carey was appointed manager in August 1961 and when he left in August 1963 Les took over for the fourth time until November when Benny Fenton became only our third manager in 14 years. Fenton was sacked in December 1964. Les took over for the final time when Dave Sexton resigned in December 1965 and remained as manager until May 1966. During this time he signed Mick Jones from Chelsea, George O'Brien from Southampton and Dick Le Flem from Middlesbrough in an attempt to keep us in Division Two. To balance the books Dave Webb was later sold to Southampton. In 1966 the club was in crisis losing £500 a week and £100,000 in debt. The club tried raising the £30,000 they needed to keep in business without selling players but it was not possible. Metchick and Paul Went were later sold to Peterborough and Charlton respectively. The Orient solution was to put six players on the transfer list, sack groundsman Jack Tonner, trainer Dave Clark and, the most shameful act of all, they sacked Les Gore. 15 years loyal service meant for nothing. If he was given a testimonial then I cannot find a record of it. Later he joined Charlton and granted a testimonial against Arsenal at the end of October 1975. Make no mistake Les is worthy of all accolades being one of a handful of Orient managers to win more games than he lost. As Neil Kaufman wrote “there should always be a permanent and prominent place in the history of Leyton Orient Football Club for Les Gore, the 'Gentleman and Ambassador of Football'”. Can't be wrong can we. Rupert. 22 January. N’Gala returned to Dagenham at the end of his loan. Dalby was to sign for Leeds on a two and a half year deal. Former O’s-academy player Michael Obafemi makes his Premier League début for Southampton. The U18’s got hammered by Luton 5-2. Team: Samuel Amedu, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Mason Hall, Shadrach Ogie, Alfie Fleming, Ernold Haxhiu, Hector Kyprianou, Eric Lopes (Brendon Shabani 65), Jaedon Phillips, Will Sanders, Charles Clayden. SUBS: Luca Carter-Henry. GOALS: Camilo-Tayaca, Own Goal. Alex Revell left Northampton on a free to Stevenage. Ruel Sotiriou has joined Leatherhead on a work experience loan deal. Club preview: Injuries would preclude Jamie Sendles-White and Charlie Grainger but Dayton could return. No mention of Widdowsons absence. 27 January. Home to Aldershot. 2-3 (Bonne, Elokobi). This went 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3. After being a goal up in a minute it all went wrong with a goal either side of the break (poor defending from Elokobi and Caprice though he did get a push in the back) putting us behind. Despite drawing level we let in a goal 16’ from time, a howler of a mistake by Brill. With Widdowson suspended it seemed a strange decision to replace him with Elokobi as did putting a proven goal scorer on the wing, shades of Barrie Fairbrother and George Petchey. I did hear Judd was injured but could not find anything on the Club website. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 5 Elokobi, 4 Lawless, 25 Happe, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 29 Holman, 7 McAnuff, 27 Dayton. Substitutes: 12 Sergeant, 24 Harrold.(Lawless 80), 19 Koroma(Dayton 43), 34 Reynolds.(Elokobi 83). Video. Club preview: Dayton, Myles Judd and Jamie Sendles-White would all miss the Halifax match. 30 January. Away to AFC Halifax. 2-1 (Bonne, Koroma). Koroma replaced Dayton and Adams Lawless. I did read somewhere that he was suspended. Bonne opened the scoring on 18 but they equalised 16 minutes later when Elokobi was outpaced, the resulting cross was miss hit straight to an unmarked player to lash into the roof of the net. Koroma got the winner six minutes before half time when a good ball from Clay found him inside the area and he shot into the near post. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 25 Happe, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 29 Holman, 7 McAnuff, 19 Koroma. Substitutes: 12 Sergeant, 10 Mooney, 24 Harrold, 22 Moncur, 34 Reynolds. Up to 17th five points away from a relegation place and three away from the club above us, Maidstone. Back to the cup on Saturday away to sixth placed Dover. Video. The U18’s lost 1-0 in Cambridge. Team:Sam Amedu, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Mason Hall, Shadrach Ogie, Alfie Fleming, Ernold Haxhiu, Hector Kyprianou, Will Sanders, Charles Clayden, Amin Benyoucef, Jaedon Phillips. SUBS: Luca Carter-Henry, Eric Lopes, Lucas Rolfe, Brendan Shabani, Wynford Marfo. 31 January. From the club website: The Club can confirm the signing of highly-rated central defender Marvin Ekpiteta from National League South side East Thurrock United. The 22-year-old will be immediately loaned back to the Rocks, where he has formed a vital partnership with fellow-O's loanee Michael Clark. Ekpiteta started his career at Oxford United and has had spells at Chelmsford City and Concord Rangers before joining John Coventry's side, making over 100 National League South appearances in the process. The six-foot-four defender is the Rocks' leading appearance maker this season and has signed a two-and-a-half year deal at Brisbane Road. He has started 42 games for East Thurrock, 22 for Concord Rangers and 58 for Chelmsford City scoring four goals in the process. We also resigned James Brophy from Swindon Town on a two-and-a-half year deal for a significant undisclosed fee. He only played in three matches since returning to Swindon, all defeats and played a total of 36 minutes football. He didn’t add to his one league career goal. Following a scan this week, the Club were disappointed to confirm that midfielder James Dayton is required to undergo hamstring surgery and is expected to be out for a period of 12 weeks, meaning his season is likely to be over. That’s the second hamstring surgery this season and about the tenth injury to involve hamstrings or groins, someone needs to look at the reason why. Jamal Campbell-Ryce left Barnet for Carlisle. Undisclosed fee. Bournemouth loaned Ryan Allsop to Lincoln. 3 February. FA Trophy away to Dover 3-4 (Elokobi, Bonne, Harrold, Mooney). This didn’t go to plan, three nil up after 54’ it was 3-3 after 83’ and took a Mooney goal to sort it in added time. Koroma made way for Reynolds whilst the ineligible Holman was replaced by Harrold. Back came Widdowson from suspension but we lost Lawless to suspension after being booked for a tenth time. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 24 Harrold, 7 McAnuff, 34 Reynolds. Substitutes: 12 Sergeant, 10 Mooney(Harrold 82), 25 Happe, 26 Brophy (Reynolds 67), 19 Koroma. Of the eight matches in the Trophy only three ended in a result. East Thurrock’s draw meant a home replay against Spennymoor but they had a man sent off, lets hope it wasn’t Ekpiteta. It wasn’t, it was Clark Video. This afternoon I listened to the Orient Outlook Podcast for Justin Edinburgh’s Meet The Manager night. Basically he put into place all that we knew was wrong with Davis’s thinking. Needed an experience goalie, needed to play the most experience team. Young players confidence is not served by losing every week. He rates Judd and if he was a league manager would be looking at Happe but when he came to the club Happe had played 16 games without a win and that was not good for his morale. Now he has a spring in his step when he turns up for training. Boco does not fit in his plans and has been circulated to other clubs. He remains professional in his approach. Is Dan Holman the player to score goals alongside Bonne? Justin seems to think so and like Adams is out of contract in the summer. Look at these. Left foot shots, right foot shots, at power, placement, headers and tap ins. And these. He did not answered a question whether a big club had come in for one of our players and with the departure of Dalby we know why. He is not in favour of the system that shunts promising players into U23 teams. After all what can you learn from playing with/against others of the same age and therefore similar skills. It’s a flawed concept. Should Brill get injured we would replace him with one of the two youngsters. Gateshead beat Maidstone 3-0 to progress to the home tie with us. Sotriou scorned on his début for Leatherhead. The Supporters Club donated £20,000 towards a Toro Pro Core Aerator. This from the Club website: “The Board of Directors authorised the purchase of a state-of-the-art, high-tech pitch cover that will not only help protect the pitch from rain and frost, it will also allow seeds underneath to germinate and existing turf to breathe and grow. How the cover accomplishes all these things at the same time is beyond my comprehension, but we believe that despite its significant cost, this was a purchase necessary to help provide our players with the safer and better surface that they should expect and indeed deserve. “The experts also recommended that we acquire an improved ground aeration device to help both with water drainage and root propagation. Again, after significant research, and with the very much appreciated financial support of the LOSC, the Club recently purchased a Toro Pro Core Aerator. Together with the cover, this aerator will go a long way toward improving the quality and safety of our pitch for years to come. 9 February. Wingate & Finchley can confirm that left-back Nathan Mavila has left the club for National League side, Leyton Orient. Mavila joined the club in July 2017 after leaving Wealdstone, going on to play 43 games in all competitions; the highest of any player in the squad to date this season. The memories of his two goals for the club will no doubt be usurped by his assist for our dramatic late winner at Dulwich Hamlet in January. Nathan leaves Wingate & Finchley with the best wishes of everyone at the Club and we hope to see him enjoy a successful career at Leyton Orient. We loaned Sargeant to Leatherhead. Freddy Moncur left the Club by mutual consent and joined Wingate and Finchley. Two days earlier we signed Sam Ling from Dagenham & Redbridge on a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee. The 21-year-old defender rejoins the Club, having made 29 appearances for John Still’s men this season in the National League. Steve Dixon's employment with the Club ended on 29 January 2018 following a reorganisation. Boreham Wood announced that Blair Turgott will join Maidstone United on a short-term loan. The Club Preview was its usual bland self suggesting Ling was available as was Lawless. 10 February. Home to Tranmere. 1-1 (Holman). What the Club Preview failed to mention was why McAnuff did not play though they mentioned a neck injury in their match report. We went a goal down two minutes from half time but Holman got the equaliser seven minutes after the restart. We plainly missed McAnuff with Koroma being no replacement. Brophy I once described as a sparkler at a firework display, all sparkle but no bang or whiz. He runs at defences but fails to pass the ball or take a shot. Needs to take a leaf out of Holman’s book. As well as his goal he had two shots that although went straight to the goalie could have easily have found the the back of the net. Adams looked competent but Lawless learnt nothing about tackling and after a two match suspension for picking up ten bookings it took him only four minutes on the pitch to pick up number 11. Brill kept us in the match with a string of saves. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman, 19 Koroma. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 25 Happe(Elokobi 74), 24 Harrold, 4 Lawless(Adams 78), 34 Reynolds(Brophy 74). Still 17th with Maidstone three points above us. Away to 7th placed Fylde next Saturday where Danny Rowe is the league’s top scorer on 18, then second from bottom Chester on a Tuesday night. Rumour had it in the Supporters Club that Dagenham were in financial trouble and clubs with artificial turf would not gain promotion with it. Video. 12 February. Finally the club website owned up to signing Nathan Mavila on a deal to the end of the season. In their preview for the Flyde match all they could say was McAnuff was a doubt as was Judd due to a groin injury sustained in training. 17 February. Away to AFC Flyde. 0-1 (Bonne pen). We kept the same team from the Tranmere match and ran them ragged. Koroma was pulled back which resulted in a booking for their Jones. Approaching the break Holman was bought down and Bonne scored his 16th League goal of the season from the spot. That’s how it remained. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman, 19 Koroma. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 25 Happe, 24 Harrold(Holman 90+3), 4 Lawless(Koroma 86), 34 Reynolds. Up to 16th on goal difference. If we beat Chester on Tuesday and Woking lose at Ebbsfleet we can go up another place on goal difference. McAnuff extended his contract by another year whilst Brill accepted a two and a half year deal. The Club is seeking a Stadium Naming Rights sponsor. The have also appointed Outside Event Caterers to take over the club bars etc. 20 February. Item in the Metro: Blair Turgott was appearing in court denying fraud and converting criminal property after allegedly gambling £16,000 with a 85 year-old pensioners stolen credit card a year ago last September. The paper described him as A Former Premier League Footballer. A more accurate description would be a footballer of a Premier League club as he only ever appeared for West Ham in the FA Cup for 26 minutes. Later the cast was dismissed as the jury could not agree after five hours of deliberation. Away to Chester. 0-1 (Brophy) Brophy improved his goal scoring to two goals in 58(28) appearances but that is nowhere near good enough. However Woking lost at Ebbsfleet which put us above them (15th) on goal difference. Elokobi was supposed to play but there was a problem in the warm up and he was replaced by Happe. Koroma had 4-5 chances to do something will the ball but failed and it took a Caprice cross for Brophy to stoop to head the ball into the corner of the net. We missed McAnuff’s ability to put the ball on the head and at feet. Bonne had two chances one of which was a yard out when it looked easier to score. The Club preview reiterated the Flyde information so McAnuff and Judd played no part in the match. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman, 19 Koroma. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 36 Ling(Koroma 82), 24 Harrold(Holman 68), 4 Lawless(Adams 68), 34 Reynolds. Two points above us are Gateshead and we play them in the FA Trophy on Saturday. Twelve points from a play off place! Eight from relegation. Video. Club preview:George Elokobi suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up at Chester on Tuesday night and may be a doubt despite light training this week. Jobi McAnuff remains a doubt after he sustained a neck injury last week. Dan Holman, Sam Ling and Nathan Mavila are ineligible for the FA Trophy. I imagine that means a start for Harrold or Reynolds. 24 February. Home to Gateshead FA Trophy. 3-3 (Koroma, Adams, Coulson). Three nil up and cruising, then….. In the 68th minute they got a goal back via poor marking from Widdowson. Four minutes later Adams was replaced by Lawless and they got another six minutes later, poor marking from Coulson and the equaliser in he 90th minute Coulson being the culprit again. It looked good earlier as Koroma crashed in a unstoppable shot in the 35’ from outside the box and Adams an equally good one on 52 with Coulson getting the third four minutes later. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 24 Harrold, 19 Koroma, 26 Brophy. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 10 Mooney(Koroma 81), 4 Lawless(Adams 72), 28 Sotiriou, 34 Reynolds. The replay was to have been the following Tuesday but with bad weather forecast it was postponed until 6 March. Video. The O’s U18’s were defeated 0-1 at home to Dagenham & Redbridge. Team: : Sam Amedu, Alfie Fleming, Will Sanders, Hector Kyprianou, Wynford Marfo, Ernold Haxhiu (C), Brendon Shabani, Jaedon Phillips (Lawrence Hammond 75), Eric Lopes, Lukas Rolfe (Antony Papadopoulos 62), Trialist A. SUBS: Kyrolle Palmer Yeovil Town have signed former Gillingham goalkeeper Stuart Nelson until the end of the season. Nelson, 36, left Gillingham by mutual consent on 31 January after making more than 220 appearances for Kent side. 1 March. From the club website: The O’s are proud to announce the launch of an exclusive Leyton Orient Dunkin’ Donut that will be going on sale on Saturday March 10 when we play Ebbsfleet United. The “O-nut” is a premium Dunkin’ Donut filled with Bavarian Crème filling and topped with a one-of-a-kind white chocolate flavoured O’s Crest. Prices: £1.50 for one, £4 for three, £7.50 for six, £12 for 12. defender Sam Ling has received a call-up to the England C squad to take on Wales on March 20. Midfielder Josh Koroma has been rewarded for his good form by being named in the Contingency squad. Jamie Sendles-White parted with the club mutually. The club announced a sponsorship deal with Chingford’s Bristol Street Motors. 4 March. Away to Dover. 0-1. The Club Preview suggested that Elokobi and McAnuff were still waiting assessment but Marvin Ekpiteta had been recalled from his loan spell at East Thurrock. Nothing to suggest any illnesses that were at the club and in the event Happe did not play and Brophy was only part time from the bench. A goal seven minutes from time was enough to give them the points and again Edinburgh moaned at the lack of concentration. I think this time Caprice was at fault. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 34 Reynolds, 19 Koroma, 29 Holman. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 21 Ekpiteta(Reynolds 78), 4 Lawless, 26 Brophy(Ling 66), 24 Harrold(Caprice 87). Dover video. 6 March. Away to Gateshead FA Trophy replay. I’m writing this as it happened. Sam Ling, Marvin Ekpiteta, Dan Holman and Nathan Mavila are unavailable for selection as they are all cup tied. Brophy and Happe have recovered from their illness. News from Twitter was that Clay and Lawless were out through illness and injury respectively. Mooney, Happe and Brophy return to start while 28 Sotiriou and 33 Charles Clayden are on the bench. At the moment we only appear to have four subs with Harrold and Grainger being the other two. That must mean that Elokobi and McAnuff are still injured. Couldn’t Sendles-White have left once we were out of the cup. Why not play Boco? Lee was out during the warm-up. A goal down in two minutes. Reynolds beats his man but fires into the keepers hands. Happe heads a Reynolds corner wide. Brophy fires over. 16th minute 2-0 down as they convert a penalty. Looks like we are heading out of the cup. Happe head Brophy’s corner but not goalwards. Brophy has a chance after good work by Reynolds. Brophy has a shot saved by the keeper and has another high and wide over the target. Mooney gets in a header but a good save from the keeper. Half time. 53’ Goal from Brophy from range. Another shot from Brophy. 70’ Mooney equalises. The O's skipper heads the ball back across the face of goal and in to the net from a James Brophy cross. 79’ Gateshead get the winnner. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 3 Widdowson, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 34 Reynolds, 19 Koroma, 10 Mooney. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 24 Harrold, Clayden, 21 Sotriou. We are letting in too many goals in the last 15 minutes and the first 15 minutes. Six v Gateshead and one at Dover. 10 March. Home to Ebbsfleet. 1-1 (Own goal). Shocking rubbish. Elokobi was my man of the match but the rest were dross. From the Club preview: Dan Holman, Sam Ling, Marvin Ekpiteta and Nathan Mavila are available for selection. Craig Clay is still recovering from the illness that kept him out of the team that travelled to Gateshead. Alex Lawless is likely to be out of this weekend’s fixture, after he sustained a hip injury in training. George Elokobi made a return to training this week but remains a doubt for this weekend’s fixture as he regains fitness. The fitness of Jobi McAnuff is still waiting to be assessed. In the event Clay and Elokobi played but Widdowson was now ill and Happe had a groin strain. Ling made his first start. Poor marking by Ling helped put the Fleet into the lead on on 15’ but on 32 Brophy’s fierce struck Clark and into the net, though Bonne was in line to put it in. Earlier Koroma’s cross was missed by Bonne who did not appear to anticipate the ball reaching him. That’s the way it stayed. The ref, Christopher Pollard was hopeless. Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 26 Brophy, 19 Koroma, 29 Holman. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 10 Mooney(Holman 63), 21 Ekpiteta, 24 Harrold, 34 Reynolds(Koroma 65). Up to 15th and nine points from safety. Edinburgh admitted a play off place was now out reach as we were 17 points away. Another 15’ goal let in. Video highlights. The O’s snatched three points in a late victory over Barnet in the Merit League Two on Saturday morning. Team: : Samuel Amedu, Alfie Fleming, Shadrach Ogie, Will Sanders, Wynford Marfo, Jaedon Phillips, Ernold Haxhiu, Hector Kyprianou, Charles Clayden, Eric Lopes, Trailist A (Finlay Lovatt 82). SUBS: Brendon Shabani, Kyrell Palmer, Antony Papadopoulos, Lawrence Hammond. GOALS: Kyprianou, Lovatt. Sendles-White joined St Albans. Aron Pollock was released and joined Sammy Lee’s Leatherhead. Ling talked about the release of players at this time explaining to releasing them now they had more chance of signing for a club rather than summer when competition was greater. Macauley Bonne and Ebou Adams have earned respective call-ups to the Zimbabwe and Gambia squads for their upcoming international fixtures. The news means that both players will miss Orient’s National League tie against Woking at Brisbane Road on the 24th March. The death was announced of the comedian Sir Ken Dodd. This has nothing to do with football. He was the last of the music hall comedians who could walk on a stage and make you laugh without a word said. No smut, no swearing, just funny. The Frenchman that invented gravy? The Count of Monte Bisto. 13 March. Home to Torquay. 0-1. I will let Ron Hudson describe this: “Woeful, horrendous - 1 points in the last two home games, no wins at home in 2018 & Torquay did the double over us.” No man of the match, they were all hopeless. I have no idea what Clay is supposed to be doing. He passes the ball like Spring was accused of doing, across and back but once having passed the ball he stands like a statue. Passing is woeful and the tackling non existant. Maybe he has been told to play like that? Team:13 Brill, 2 Caprice, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 9 Bonne, 26 Brophy, 10 Mooney, 34 Reynolds. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 19 Koroma,(Clay 68), 3 Widdowson(Caprice 58), 24 Harrold, (Reynolds 57), 29 Holman. We looked better once the subs came on. My option for what it is worth is that Harrold should always start, Brophy does not have the ability to cut in and shoot. Koroma cannot find his own players with a cross. Just by way of the change we let in the goal on 36’ rather than 15’ past 0 or 15’ before time. Edingburgh blamed the pitch. Wouldn’t make him wrong, must be like running on a dry beach. The ball seems to stick in the mud in places and not in others. Video highlights. The Club are on the lookout for a Finance Manager. Rumour has it that O's Under 18's Captain Teddy Perkins has signed a Pro Deal with Premier League Burnley FC. 17 March. Eastleigh away. 0-0. Edinbugh shuffled the team around for this one possibly because Bonne and Adams would be missing for next week. Caprice and Reynolds were dropped, unless of course they were injured? The Club Preview suggested nothing of the sort but that the manager had a full team to choose from bar Lee and Dayton with the return to fitness of Judd, Lawless and Happe who had trained this week. Enough chances to win it but again Koroma failing to find his man. Brophy was only mentioned once on Twitter and that after over 90’. The same in the Club report. Team:13 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman 7 McAnuff, 24 Harrold. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 19 Koroma,(McAnuff 52), 31 Ekpiteta, 10 Mooney, 9 Bonne(Holman 61). 17th with Woking on the same points. They are our next home opponents. Ten points away from a relegation place. Video highlights. Clark and Ochieng have departed the Club by mutual consent. 24 March. Home to Woking. 3-0 (Bonne 2, 1 pen, Brophy). Better. Club preview:Myles Judd steped up his recovery this week during a friendly agasint Greenwich Borough as he completed 61 minutes in the 1-0 victory.Bonne and Adams received permission to play despite Internation duty. Woking hit the bar on 7, but a defensive by defender Jones let in Bonne whose shot was kept out by the keeper but Bonne shot inside the far post did not give him a second chance. Seven minutes later the same Jones felled Brophy just inside the box. Bonne’s strong shot gave the keeper no chance even if he did go the wrong way. Harrold started this one but only lasted six minutes. Another hamstring or groin no doubt. Holman replaced him. Woking used all their subs in a bid to get back on terms but it misfired when Charles-Cook went down like a sack of spuds with no one near him. They played the last 20’ with ten men. Brophy’s shot from 25 yards made it three nil. Now all we need is for the rest of the team to find their shotting boots. Team:13 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman 7 McAnuff, 24 Harrold. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 19 Koroma,(McAnuff 82), 31 Ekpiteta, 10 Mooney(Bonne 90+3), 29 Holman(Harrold 6). Up to 14th on 47 points but the most we can hope for is 12th. Above us are Gateshead and Maidenhead on 48 and 49 and then Dagenham on 54. Frazier Shaw left Andy Hessenthaler’s Eastleigh and joined Sammy Lee at Leatherhead. Some insight on releasing the young players: He (Edinburgh) said: “It’s my decision along with Martin (Ling) and Ross (Embleton) and I always say, please prove me wrong. It’s nothing personal and I’m not getting rid of every youth player that comes through here. But they’ve got to be good enough. In my view, the ones that I’ve let go weren’t.” The O’s head coach also confirmed that Charley Barker will not be handed a professional contract, with the young midfielder currently on trial at League 2 side Cheltenham Town. He said: “Charley’s been made aware he won’t be getting a new contract here so what we’re trying to do is let them boys have an opportunity to get ahead of the game and try and secure themselves a contract elsewhere. “The way we are looking to do things next year, what we need is young players who are ready for the first team. The one’s I’ve spoken about (Myles) Judd, (Dan) Happe and (Josh) Koroma, they’re ready and I’ve got to be the here and now and that’s what we’re about. “We’re not a Football League team anymore and we’ll lose a lot more of our funding next year. We’ve got to concentrate on the first team to let us have an under 23s where we can develop young players in the right environment and that will be my decision behind these young boys. Nothing would please me more if they went and proved me wrong.” Matthew Briggs had his contract with Barnet cancelled after Graham Westley was sacked and replaced by Martin Allen for the fifth time. Allen has employed Adrian Whitbread as his assistant and cut the playing staff to 20. The Bees are seven points from safety and Grimsby who sacked Russell Slade on February 11 after 12 games without a win. Scott Kashket revealed the nightmare at Leyton Orient when ruled by Italians. He has only figured in seven games for Wycombe this season without starting a match or scoring a goal. Orient U18’s secured three points in their 3-1 home win over Newport County in the Merit League Two on Saturday morning. Team: Samuel Amedu, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Will Sanders, Shadrach Ogie (Wynford Marfo 80), Eric Lopes, Ernold Haxhiu, Hector Kyprianou, Amin Benyoucef, Brendon Shabani (Bradley McClenaghan 80), Jaedon Phillips, Charles Clayden, Trialist A (Trialist B 45). SUBS: Lawrence Hammond, Finlay Lovatt. GOALS: Phillips (2), Clayden. Leyton Orient victory led to £9.3m lottery win for fan. A football fan said seeing his team win 3-0 was a "lucky omen" which prompted him to buy a lottery ticket which netted him £9.3m. Paul Long, 55, from Wickford in Essex, said the win would not change him. 30 March. Away to Guiseley. 1-3 (McAnuff 2, Mooney.) Can win against ten men. Harrold did not feature because, surprise, surpirse, a hamstring injury. The 13th hamstring/groin injury of the season according to my reckoning. Goalless at half time but their Nirennold pulled Bonne back and was booked for his effort. Things dramatically changed a minute into the second half when goalkeeper Coddington was sent off for tackling Bonne outside the box. Guiseley sacrificed a player to bring on the sub keeper Green but the resulting free kick by McAnuff found the top corner of the net. On 75’ McAnuff doubled his tally when he fired low to Green’s left and in to the net and double our lead. We gifted Guiseley a goal back when Joe Widdowson’s back pass bobbled over the foot of Brill and in to the net. On 90+5 Mooney, on for Holman, made it 1-3. Some time during the season Brill has swapped the 13 shirt for 20. Team:20 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 29 Holman 7 McAnuff, 9 Bone. Substitutes: 39 Janata, 19 Koroma,(Adams 76), 31 Ekpiteta, 10 Mooney(Holman 60), 14 Judd. Up to 12th on 50 points with Dagenham above us on 55 but played a game less. Below on 49 points are Gateshead, Eastleigh and our next opponents at home on Easter Monday, Maidenhead. All have at least one game in hame of us. The Soccerstats website shows a total of 24 points won at home against 26 away. Macclesfield are six points (on 78) clear at the top from Sutton. At least six other clubs below them have a chance of a play off place including AFC Flyde on 62. Elsewhere sub Ollie Palmer scored the winner for Lincoln after Jayden Stockely had opened the scoring for Exeter. Jabbo put Cambridge in the lead after four minutes then gave away a penalty 45 minutes later but that was Crawley’s only goal as the U’s scored three. Those of us holding shares in the club received a set of accounts today. It shows that the operating loss was reduced to £2,837,283 by about £700,000 for 2017. The board hope to reduce that by half by the next set of accounts. The average monthly number of employees (including directors) in 2017 was 249 up five from 2016. 2 April. Home to Maidenhead. Postponed due to a waterlogged pitch only one of three matches off in our division. It has been rearranged for 24 April. Next up is Barrow at home. Dropped to 13th as Eastleigh beat Aldershot away with McCallum scoring their second goal. Dagenham beat Maidstone to go 11th, eight points from us. The following appeared in the latest Orientear: The good,the bad, and the downright disastrous. Goodbye, adieu, auf wiedersehen or something ending in off to Becchetti, the worse chairman we have ever had. Not since 1939 has xenophobia, Leyton and Italians been used so much in the same sentence. Then we locked up every Italian we could find living in the UK. Maybe the govenment should do it again but limit to one person? But what makes anyone want to run a football club? There was a time, or was there a time, when local businessmen ran 'their' local club for the love of the club forsaking any personal gain. Or was there? This from a supporter in Tony MacDonald's book: “Between winning promotion in 1956 and then again in '62, the club sold a lot of players for what was then very good money, so the directors must have done very well out of it. The likes of - Woosnam -at £30,000 – and Johnston £35,000 - were sold for big money... and they didn't spend what they got for the likes of them on replacements. The club had never had been run properly since the mid -50s when they were getting unbelievable crowds of between 20,00 and 30,000. And yet the most they paid out in that time was £8,000 to Newport County for Johnston.” So that's one opinion. But we didn't pay £8,000 for Johnston, we paid £5,500 as Mike Burgess was valued at £2,000 in the deal that took him to Newport. According to Tommy, Zussman paid the £5,500 out of his pocket, so he was told. Johnston was transferred to Blackburn Rovers for £15,000. He wanted to leave, we didn't want him to go. In February 1959 Johnston returned for £7,500. July 1962 Tommy Johnston moved to Gillingham for £3000. We bought him for a total of £13,000 and sold him for a total of £18,000. The sale of Johnston for £35,000 does not appear in any book I have. Woosnam wanted to play in the first division. The average home attendance was 16,061 for the promotion season of 1955/56. The case for the defence: For the start of the 1956/57 season we dismantled Mitcham (greyhounds) Stadium and erected it in Brisbane Road. Would that have been cheap? In 1962 we added to it southbound to Coronation Gardens. Cost money wouldn't it? On August 31 1960 O’s played their first game under floodlights, which cost £15,000. In 1956 the club's board of directors said they needed £10,000 by 15 th October or they would be forced to sell star players. We got £30,000 for the sale of Charlton and Groves to Arsenal in November 1956. Maybe that is why we made a profit of £17,965 that year. In 1954 we played Fulham in the FA Cup at home in front of 25,803 and Alec Stock went on record pointing out we were not making a fortune out of these games quoting figures of receipts of £3,481 but paying Fulham and the FA £851 each with Fulham's expenses, printing, entertainment tax, police, 40% levy to the Football League meant that Fulham and the FA took more than the £819 we made. Over 20 players turned out for us that season. But around the mid 1960's directors appeared on several boards, though not at the same time. Ken Bates was on the board at Chelsea, Leeds, Oldham, and Wigan. He grew up supporting QPR. Orient director Reg Briggs I think was on the board of Crystal Palace in 1974 after leaving us and Neville Ovenden joined Watford for a short time after leaving us following his disagreement with Arthur Page. But Harry Zussman had a shoe business in Shoreditch, Page was born in Bethnal Green, Ovenden had a paper company in Epping, Tony Wood was Leyton born. Barry Hearn born in Dagenham, Nigel in Woodford. If “the directors did very well out of it” they did so whilst keeping the club afloat. As well as the aforementioned 1956 crisis we had the 1966 crisis. In the Watford programme of October 29 1966 there was this “ Reports that the club is around £100,000 in the red …...and that we are losing up to £500 a week are substantially correct. It must be remembered, though, that a lot of that £100,000 was incurred in building the new stand and making other ground improvements during the years that we moved up from the Third Division to the First. Since then the club has been steadily losing money.” They needed gates of 10,000 to break even (£1,500 a week) they also wanted to raise £30,000 to keep in business. Despite valiant efforts it was not raised and Dave Metchick was sold to Peterborough and the late Paul Went to Charlton. In 1986 Tony Wood saved the club and became chairman. When his empire crashed Barry Hearn “bought the club for a fiver” in 1995. What is your opinion? Good or bad? We are not mentioning the disastrous last chairman.. Rupert Semedo is now playing for Italian club Santarcangelo Calcio who are in the third tier of Italian football said the Orientear. He has started only four matches, the first being at the end of January and appeared once from the bench without scoring. He has a contract until the end of June next year. Maybe his agents Magico Sports Partnerships Ltd should have advised staying with us? 4 April. Ex O and England midfielder Ray Wilkins died after being in an induced coma following cardiac arrest. He played three games for us in the late 1990’s. 7 April. Home to Barrow. 4-1 (Own goal, Koroma, Bonne 2). Can win against ten men - again. Holman played no part in the match yet nothing on the Club Preview suggested an injury. But that is what he had. Back to bad ways as we went behind after seven minutes due to a lack of marking. Their three had a long throw which played havoc until he (Jones) was sent off on 78’ for a second bookable offence, charging into the back of Brophy. His day started badly from the 28’ when a McAnuff corner to the near post was flicked on by Bonne and took a deflection off Jones’s thigh into the net. Three minutes earlier Coulson limped off to be replaced by Ekpiteta and he did not put a foot wrong all afternoon. It was only until the 70’ replacement of Mooney for Koroma did things hot up. Two minutes later a Ling long throw was headed on by Elokobi and Koroma bundled the ball into the net via the upright. On 90’ a Brophy cross found the unmarked Bonne for a simple tap in. Good work by Brophy three minutes later found Widdowson overlapping and his cross was headed into the net by a stooping Bonne. Team:20 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 18 Coulson, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 10 Mooney, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 19 Koroma,(Mooney 70), 31 Ekpiteta, 34 Reynolds(Clay 90+3), 14 Judd. 12th, Dagenham still 6 points above us. Does this make sense? No game last week due to a waterlogged pitch. This week the pitch was watered before the match and again at half time. Away to league leaders Macclesfield next. Ocheing was having a trial with the QPR U23’s whilst Barker was reported to be playing in a friendly for Notts County where Kevin Nolan is now manager and his assistant Richard Thomas was Barker's youth team coach. The 19-year-old recently spent time on trial at Cheltenham Town, making three appearances for their reserve team. Josh Coulson has suffered a broken toe. Leyton Orient’s U18’s made it four wins in a row when they overcame Yeovil Town by a single goal at Old Chigwellians on Friday afternoon in the Merit League two. Will Sanders struck late in the second-half to wrap up the three points for the youth team. Team: Samuel Amedu, Andrew Camilo-Tayaca, Eric Lopes (Alfie Fleming 66), Ernold Haxhiu, Will Sanders, Shadrach Ogie, Amin Benyoucef, Hector Kyprianou, Jaedon Phillips, Ruel Sotiriou (Luca Carter-Henry 54), Charles Clayden (Jeremie Sivi, 69). SUBS: Bradley McClenaghan. GOAL: Sanders (75). 14 April. Away to Macclesfield. 1-1 (Koroma). I saw this oneon BT Sport thanks to my nephew. We rather spoilt their promotion celebrations which were going to plan after 17’ when Ekpipeta failed to make a header and the unmarked Whitaker’s shot was left by Brill and it crept into the bottom of the net. Brophy and Clay were doing little or nothing and so was Koroma until a McAnuff corner found Elokobi but his attempted overhead kick hit his shin and found Koroma. He shot evaded the defenders to find the net on 42’. To be honest they did not look like league champions. Team:20 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 21 Ekpiteta, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 19 Koroma, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 4 Lawless, 25 Happe, 14 Judd, 10 Mooney(Koroma 61). Match highlights. The vultures are circling for the signature of 20 goal Bonne who has still a year to go on his contract. Burton, Shrewsbury and Portsmouth plus Leeds. See his 20 goals on Facebook. Does he want to be a big fish in a small pool? Management need to extend his contract NOW. See the Last Chance Saloon article below. 17 April. Away to Hartlepool. (0-1). Edinburgh decided to stick with the same team but Elokobi went off injured at half time to be replaced by Happe. By then we were goal down and despite having most of the play we could not find the equalizer let alone the winner. The win kept the monkey hangers in the league. Team:20 Brill, 3 Widdowson, 36 Ling, 5 Elokobi, 31 Adams, 21 Ekpiteta, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 19 Koroma, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 34 Reynolds(Brophy 46), 25 Happe(Elokobi 45), 14 Judd, 10 Mooney(Clay 68). 14th. Match highlights. 21 April. Home to Wrexham. 1-0. (Bonne). Wrexham needed this to make a play off place. They were very ordinary. On 29’ McAnuff slung over a cross which Bonne glanced a header into the corner of the net. Goalie nowhere and no chance. For the rest of the match they seemed to be content to try long range shots which sailed into touch. The BBC said “Wrexham, who failed to create any clear-cut chances, now need other results to go their way if they are to make the play-offs. Leyton Orient move up to 13th with the win, whilst Wrexham drop to 10th.” Widdowson and Elokobi missed this one due to thighh strains but Happe and Judd were more than up to the job, in fact the back four looked solid. Mooney and McAnuff both had shoots saved by the goalie whilst Ling and Koroma’s shots were blocked with a good chance of beating the keeper. Could be the management have requested more shots. Not before time. Team:20 Brill, 14 Judd, 36 Ling, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 21 Ekpiteta, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 19 Koroma, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 8 Lee(Brophy 90+1), 33 Clayden, 34 Reynolds, 10 Mooney(Adams 73). Match Highlights. Up to 13th and the last home match of the season against Maidenhead who are a point above us, on Tuesday. Striker Josh Koroma and defender Sam Ling have received England C recognition. Both players have been named part of a 16-man squad that will take on the FA of Ireland Amateur International XI on May 27 in Dublin. The last edition of the Orientear for the season had this article (or something similar): Semedo and Adeboyejo decided (or someone else did) that they no longer wanted to play for a club in the National League. Adeboyejo signed for Barnsley on 1 November but has not played for his club. Semedo did not play again until the end of January but has only figured in five matches without scoring for his new club Santarcangelo Calcio who are in the third tier of Italian football. Let us hope they don't go the way of some players who left our club with high hopes. Alex Finney joined Maidstone on loan until January. He left us without playing a single game to join Bolton in August 2014. Two years later after 2(1) apps he joined QPR but has yet to play for them either. But the worse case is George Porter. Described by Dean Cox as a 'silly boy'. He joined us from Cray Wanderers in August 2010 and racked up 12 starts plus 27 from the bench scoring two goals a seemingly heading for a bright future. Then in 2012 he joined Burnley but in 19 months he failed to make a single start for them. During this time he was loaned to Colchester and Wimbledon before being released. He joined Rochdale starting one match plus a start from the bench. Then Dagenham for a season 9(14) scoring two goals. Since then he has played for Welling and Bromley as we know to our cost. (The above part of the article was as submitted, Below the editor made changes) Is is not easy to make it as a professional footballer. The 1971-72 squad included Bobby Moss, John South, Mike O'Shaughnessy, Steve Bowtell, Malcolm Filby, Martin Spinks, Gerry Sullivan, Ian Filby, Ray Botham, Bobby Fisher, Keith Walsh, Peter Johnson and John Lewis. Take the last seven, add South, M Filby, O'Shaunessy and Spinks and between them they started 546 matches. (the editor wrote: If you add all the games between them they made 597 League appearences). On the face of it not too bad. Take out games played by Johnson and Fisher and the total is one. (the editor made it 33 and omitted the rest of the sentence). Apperances: Lewis 0(2), Johnson 1(2) Crystal Palace 5(2) Bournemouth 99(8), Fisher 353(7) Cambridge 42 Brentford 45, Spinks 0, O'Shaunessy 1, M Filby 0, South 0, Botham 0, Sullivan 0. Not many have been released and gone on to better things. Arron McLean possibly the most recent. I have been doing some research on the 1950's and even then most players leaving us went to clubs where we are, non league. We are the last chance saloon. Rupert PS. For a list of Orient transfers search Leyton Orient at this site http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/ or here http://hugmansfootballers.com/club/385 I should have made the total 11 as Steve Bowtell made 8 apps in goal and Bobby Moss 2(3) and therefore it would have made my total 556 starts. (I cannot fathom editors total of made 597 appearances. Adding sub apps (24) to my 556 starts still takes the total to 580). Fisher made 45 FA Cup and League Cup starts. 24 April. Home to Maidenhead. 0-1. Game of Thugs. This was a nightmare from the fourth minute when Judd on the left flank managed to hook a ball into touch over his head for a corner on the right side of the field. Brill misjudged the corner and it bounced off Adams bum to the unmarked Upward who lashed it into the net. The only other incident of note was the booking of Lee who made a rash tackle on the half way line and could have got sent off but was shown a yellow card instead. In the ensuing melee Bonne was also booked. In the last minuted Upward was sent off for arguing a free kick decision. Team:20 Brill, 14 Judd, 36 Ling, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 21 Ekpiteta, 23 Clay, 26 Brophy, 9 Bonne, 19 Koroma, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 8 Lee(Clay 45), 10 Mooney, 34 Reynolds(Brophy 60), 33 Clayden. Match highlights. The Club announced that front of shirt sponsorship deal had been struck with Dream Team next season which rankled with some supporters still harbouring a grudge against the Sun newspaper. 28 April. 1-3 Away to Gatesheat. (Bonne, McAnuff, Koroma). Edinburgh decided to drop Clay and Brophy and replace them with Lee and Mooney. Bonne scored on 17’ flicking McAnuff’s corner into the net. By then we had already hit the post. It took us eight minutes into the second half before scoring again. This time Mooney cut back to McAnuff to fire into the net. The BBC then said “Josh Koroma added a third as the visitors set down a statement of intent about a promotion challenge next year.” Clayden made his début on 62’ replacing Lee. Adams tripped Greenwood to give away a penalty on 90’. 40% of the attendance were Orient supporters (424/1056) Team:20 Brill, 14 Judd, 36 Ling, 25 Happe, 31 Adams, 21 Ekpiteta, 8 Lee, 10 Mooney, 9 Bonne, 19 Koroma, 7 McAnuff. Substitutes: 1 Grainger, 23 Clay, 3 Widdowson, 34 Reynolds, 33 Clayden(Lee 62). Match highlights. We finished the season 13th on 60 points with a goal difference of +2. Macclesfield, Tranmere and Sutton were promoted with Boreham Wood, Ebbsflett, Aldershot and Flyde in the playoffs. Relegated were Woking (on 48 points), Torquay, Chester and Guiseley. In the bottom four in League Two were Forest Green, Morecambe, Barnet and Chesterfield who were thrashed 1-6 at home to Coventry. In the divisions below us in South were Havant & Waterlooville while up North were Salford City. Harrogate Town, Brackley Town, Kidderminster Harriers, Stockport County, Chorley and Bradford Park Avenue will contest the North play-offs, while Dartford, Chelmsford City, Hampton & Richmond Borough, Hemel Hempstead Town, Braintree Town and Truro City have reached the South play-offs. Enfield Town player/assistant manager Darren Purse will be working at League One Oxford United next season. Gary Alexander is the new Ashford United manager. And the ex-Greenwich Borough boss wasted no time in revealing that his one-time Orient team-mate, John Mackie, would be joining him as his assistant-manager It will be interesting to see the retained list. Top of the agenda would be to get Bonne to sign an extended contract. Next to sign Adams. Boco will be on the transfer list and it would not surprise me to see Caprice with him. Reynolds will return to Newport. Scales has yet to play a game and spent a lot of time on loan at Harlow. He still has a year on his contract. We may see the release of one of the young goalies. Edinburgh has also expressed a desire to sign two strikers and Holman could be one of them. Our defence is fine but Dayton, Brophy and Koroma do not have McAnuff’s skills. The ability to go on a run and pass the ball to a fellow player or a meaningful shot at goal. The ability to cross a ball to the head or feet of someone wearing the same colour shirt. The ability to score from a free kick. When McAnuff was missing in Feb/Mar we lost to Dover, Gateshead and Torquay. 11 May. The retained list was much as thought above. JOSH KOROMA and MYLES JUDD were retained following contract options being exercised. SAM SARGEANT, RUEL SOTIRIOU (Professional deal) and ARTHUR JANATA (Third Year Scholarship), were offered new contracts. NATHAN MAVILA, RIAN McLEAN, CHARLEY BARKER, TOBY STEVENSON (Second Year Scholar) and ANDREW CAMILO-TAYACA (Second Year Scholar) were released. Players under contract but immediately available for transfer were JAKE CAPRICE, CHRISTIAN SCALES and ROMUALD BOCO. DAN HOLMAN, LAMAR REYNOLDS and EBOU ADAMS have returned to their parent clubs following the conclusion of their loans. Which does not mean they won’t return as they are probably still in contract for a month or two. Sammy Moore left Leatherhead for Concord Rangers taking Sean Clohessey and Frazer Shaw with him. Moore took them to a 6th place finish, 2nd Round of the FA Cup and runners up in the Surrey Cup. Zain Westbrooke left Brentford for Coventry for free. Released: Josh Wright from Southend. Chris Dagnall by Crewe. Nathan Clark by Grimsby. 16 players were released by relegated Barnet. Narrowly missing relegation from our division were Barrow and they released six and put five up for sale. The Matchroom Stadium is no more. For the next two years it will be The Breyer Group Stadium. The Breyer Group are a roofing and construction company founded in Leyton, and currently operate with over 400 employees, and are one of their industry's leading firms. Founder Fred Breyer has enjoyed a long association with the O's. Pre season friendlies have been arranged at Harlow on July 7 and Concord Rangers two weeks later on the 21st. On the 24th we will host Southend. They will also attend a pre-season training camp in Portugal in July. The squad will travel to Albufeira in the Algarve region between Sunday July 8 and Sunday July 15, where they will take part in a series of warm weather training sessions before playing a Championship side, to be confirmed, in a pre-season friendly on Friday, July 13 at Estadio Municipal de Albufeira (home of Imortal D.C.). Martin Ling confirmed that Dan Holman would not return to the club and we are on the look out for a midfielder and striker. Harrold will be out until September. The midfielder could be Ebou Adams as they are still in talks with him. Tell him it is better to be a big fish in a small pool. 25 May. The death was announced of Phil McKnight the oldest living former-O's player who was just short of his 94th birthday. The Club website had this to say ‘McKnight was a talented wing-half who was born in Camlachie, Scotland on June 15 1924. He made the move from Alloa Athletic to Chelsea in 1947, before joining the O's in 1954 where he made 161 appearances across five seasons.’ John Mackie has taken a role within the O's academy. Mackie will coach the O's U16 team, alongside Matt Waldren, in a role that he will combine with his first-team duties at Ashford United. Adams opted not to join us though it has nothing to do with money. He joined Ebbsfleet. Ex O’s on the move were: Ian Culverhouse became Grantham Town manager. Shwan Jalal [Macclesfield - Chesterfield] Free, Jamal Campbell-Ryce [Carlisle - Stevenage] Free, Scott Cuthbert [Luton - Stevenage] Free, Josh Wright [Southend - Bradford] Free. As far as I can make out the new teams to our league from below are Braintree Town, Harrogate Town, Havant & Waterlooville and Salford City. John Still left Dagenham and joined Barnet whose manager Martin Allen had left for relegated Chesterfield. We play them both next season. Ruel Sotiriou has signed a two year professional contract. The 17-year-old made his debut in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying round draw against Dagenham and Redbridge and made four appearances for the O’s in the 2017/18 season. Peter Taylor became part of the management team at Dagenham. Sam Sargeant signed a two-year deal. Nathan Mavila joined Hampton and Richmond Borough. 14 June. First signing of the summer is 21 year-old Stevenage midfielder Dale Gorman on a two-year deal. The U21 Northern Irishman played a total of 45(26) games for them scoring three goals. He made 27 apps last season scoring two goals with three yellow cards and one red. He had been at Stevenage since May 2013. Ex O’s on the move: Michael Collins joined Bradford as head coach. Last season he was on a short term contract at FC Halifax Town. Ryan Allsop [Bournemouth - Wycombe] Free. Chris Dagnall [Crewe - Bury] Free. Chelmsford City have agreed terms with striker Shaun Batt for the upcoming season. Scoring three times from 28 appearances, a number of injuries picked up throughout the season meant the 31-year-old found game time limited. Ben Chorley has left Bromley. Last season, Chorley was not only a player-coach, but also a member of the club’s academy coaching staff, where he oversaw the 2nd year scholars, who enjoyed a successful FA Youth Cup run. Alex Finney has signed a two-year deal with Maidstone. Eric Lichaj [Nottingham Forest - Hull] for an undisclosed fee. He played nine games for us in 2010 scoring one goal against Stockport on 17 April. Alan Dunne signed up for one more season at Bromley. An Orient 11 will play Greenwich Borough on July 30. The local Guardian suggest we are interested in Tranmere’s James Alabi though he does not appear for them on Soccerbase despite this on the BBC website (July 2017) Tranmere Rovers have signed striker James Alabi from neighbours Chester on a deal until the end of 2018- 19. He started his playing career on loan at Scunthorpe before moving to Mansfield before being loaned to Forest Green, Scunthorpe and Accrington. He moved to Ipswich in 2015 but made only one sub app scoring one goal and then moved to Grimsby on loan signing for Chester in Jan 2016 where he had his most successful spell scoring 23 goals in 53(5) apps but loaned to Tranmere last year making 4(5) apps without scoring before being loaned to Dover scoring one goal in 7(4) apps. Born in Southwark he was on the books of Stoke’s academy. 27 June. We duely signed James Bamidele Oluwatemi Alabi for an undisclosed fee on a two-year deal. Apparently we had tried to sign him before Edinburgh arrived but the fee was the problem. The 23 year-old career totals are, according to Soccerbase: 68(31) scoring 26 goals though in addition scored three goals without making any appearances under other games. Not sure how you can do that. Ignoring the Chester stats he has been signed by nine clubs making 14(26) apps scoring three goals. For Chester see above. During his career he has been booked five times and sent off twice. Last season he made 20 apps scoring one goal (for Dover). Other stats 75kg 185cm which for us old gits is 11st 8lbs and 6ft.08inches. See some of his goals. Caprice joined Tranmere whilst Boco and Scales had their contracts mutually cancelled. Ollie Palmer joined Crawley for an undisclosed fee from Lincoln. Bostik Premier side Bishop’s Stortford have announced that veteran striker Jamie Cureton has committed to playing for the club for the upcoming campaign. Michael Clark signed for Braintree. The Non-League Daily assessing playoff places for our division does not put us in the top ten. Ling wants us in the top seven. Lamar Reynolds joined Dagenham. Alzate and Abrahams went on seaon loans to Swindon and Exeter. Neither had made any first team apps for Brighton and Norwich. Dean Cox had his contract with Crawley by mutual consent in the hope of getting regular apps for a league club. That lets us out then? Lloyd James left Exeter for Forest Green for an undisclosed fee. Luke Summerfield joined Wrexham. The first friendly of the season saw us win 0-7 at Harlow with goals from Koroma 4, Bonne, Brophy and Alabi. ORIENT First Half XI: Brill, Judd, Coulson, Happe, Ogie, Dayton, Lee, McAnuff, Calyden, Bonne, Sotiriou. ORIENT Second Half XI: Sargeant, Ling, Ekpiteta, Elokobi, Widdowson, Koroma, Clay, Kyprianou, Brophy, Alabi, Trailist. Attendance 372. Video highlights. The team then flew out to Portugal. We ave appointed Southend United’s Reece Ottley as the new goalkeeper coach. Ottley arrives from the Shrimpers having spent the last five years working within the League One side’s academy set-up alongside some of their young shot-stoppers. In the Non-League Paper 27 June John Still assured Dagenham & Redbridge fans that he won’t be raiding any of his former club’s star players without the blessing of the Daggers’ hierarchy. Next day John Still had returned to his former club to sign Andre Boucaud, Dan Sparkes and Charliee Adams. Ex O’s: Scott Wagstaff [Gillingham - AFC Wimbledon] Free. Paul Terry has returned to Yeovil. The 39 year old has been given the role of First Team Coach at Huish Park, after leaving a role he held at Oldham Athletic last season. Striker Armand Gnanduillet has rejoined Blackpool just two months after he left the League One club to join South African side Baroka FC. Crawley Town have signed former Brighton & Hove Albion defender Romain Vincelot on a two-year contract from League One club Bradford City for an undisclosed fee. Cray Wanderers have signed Bradley Pritchard. The game in Portugal against Benfica B finished in at 5-4 defeat with two penalties for both sides. Bonne and Alabi scored ours with Brophy and Mooney getting the other goals. Video highlights We won the match at East Thurrock 0-4 with goals from Bonne, Mooney, Koroma and an own goal. Team: Brill (GK), Judd (Lawless 60), Coulson (Ekpiteta 60), Elokobi (Happe 60), Widdowson (Ogie 60), Dayton (McAnuff 60), Clay (Kyprianou 60), Lee (Haxhiu 60), Clayden (Brophy 60), Bonne (Koroma 60), Mooney (Alabi 60). Video highlights We played Millwall U23’s in a behind the closed doors match winning 0-4 with Alabi scoring twice and Bonne and Lee also getting on the scoresheet. Next up is away to Concord Rangers. We Beat Concord Rangers 3-2 thanks to a late winner from Koroma after Bonne had scored two. A long range shot saw Rangers take the lead and poor marking from a corner saw a mistimed punch by Brill put them two up. Video highlights. Against St Albans we drew 1- 1 despite fielding a strong team of :Brill, Judd (Lee 79), Coulson, Elokobi, Ling, Koroma (Dayton 52), Clay, McAnuff (C), Brophy (Lawless 70), Bonne, Alabi. Koroma scored his seventh pre-season friendly goal. The only friendly of the season at home was against Southend. After being a goal down twice we drew 2-2 thanks to a penalty converted by Bonne and the equaiser by Alabi after Jason Demetriou had opened the scoring. An Orient 11 ( Sargeant, Fleming, Ekpiteta, Happe, Ogie, Gorman, Kyprianou, Haxhiu, Benyoucef, Sotiriou, Mooney (C)) played at Greenwich Borough winning 0-4 through Sotiriou, Mooney (2) & Shabani. Ex O Mathieu Baudry left Doncaster for MK Dons for free. FGS are the official sponsor of the Club website and Orient Express e-newsletter. Website cannot be a lot worse. Logging in for tickets here https://www.onlyoneorient.com/ is no problem but try entering the same details here https://www.leytonorient.com/my-account/ is a waste of time. New name of the South Stand will be ‘The Q2W Tommy Johnston Stand’. Q2W provide a range of services to the construction Industry. Got an opinion? See something wrong? Email Keith. Next page.