Previous page 1970-1971 season start.      Next page 1972-1973.   In the month of February physio Charlie Simpson left the club and was replaced by former Southend manager Ernie Shepherd. Arthur Rowe joined the club as general advisor, he was after all at Crystal Palace.   26 February. Home to Chelsea FA Cup Round 5 (3-2 (Hoadley, Bullock, Fairbrother). In the Chelsea match the first 40 minutes went the way expected ie all Chelsea's way. They were winning 2-0. But Phil Hoadley had other ideas and his raised finger sa- luted his crashing shot which had Bonetti groping thin air. The second half on a pudding of a pitch was sheer Orient magic with Mickey Bullock drawing us level and Fairbrother scrambling through the mud to shoot the Orient winner. Dave Sexton became the second former manager to have his team stuffed by his former club, and all in the space of a month! Chelsea could offer no ex- cuse, they had after all, fielded seven internationals. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley.   Fortunes continued to fluctuate in the league. 4 March. Away to Hull (1-1 Allen). O's picked up a point at thanks to Peter Allen's goal in the 1-1 draw. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley.   11 March. Home to Blackpool (0-1). In the home match against Blackpool George Petchey picked up the Bells 'Manager of the Month Award' as his team lost 0-1. Another pro- gramme got snipped if you wanted a ticket for the FA Cup match v Arsenal. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley.   (18 March, Home to Arsenal FA Cup 6th Round (0-1). The stage was set for the 6th round FA Cup match at home to Arsenal. There was to be no fairy tale result to this match and despite hitting the woodwork three times and occasionally out-playing Arsenal, the Gunners scored a disputed goal and won 1-0. 31,768 saw the match. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley.   Back in the league consecutive there were 2-1 wins. 24 March. Home to Portsmouth (2-1 o/g, Allen). Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley. 31 March. Away to Charlton (1-2 o/g, Dyson p). This helped ease the relegation worries. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley. 1 April. Away to QPR (1-0). But we couldn't beat QPR who were without the re- cently transferred Rodney Marsh and lost 1-0. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Un-named. 3 April. Home to Fulham (1-0), Fielding a on loan Alan Mullery from Spurs they were beaten 1-0 at Brisbane Road thanks to Bowyer. They were below us in the table. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley. 5 April. Home to Southend in a Mid-Week cup match, score unknown. Team: Bowtell, Arber, Sewell, Binks, South, Woodward, Lazarus, Lewis, Riddick, Brisley, Moss sub Johnson. Peter Taylor played for them.       8 April. Home to Middlesbrough (1-1 Dyson). Barry Dyson's goal earnt us a point in a 1-1 draw. Nobby Stiles was in the Boro team but there was no place for Derrick Downing. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother, Dyson, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley.   This was followed by two away defeats. 12 April. Away to Cardiff (1-0). A Hoadley ‘goal’ was disallowed. No programme for this match. 17 April. Away to Sheffield Wednesday (3-1 Dyson). An inury to Rofe meant he had to come off. No programme for this match. 18 April. Home to Cambridge in the Mid-Week League. I’m to going to bore you with the programme as it consisted on a sheet of paper run off a Roneo printer. The advert on the other side was for the New Sportsman’s Club. Team: Bowtell, Arber, Sewell, Binks, South, Riddick, Lazarus, Lewis, Moss, Sullivan, Johnson sub Ian Filby. Goalscorer - Riddick.   22 April. Home to Watford (1-0 Bowyer). A team fielding Billy Jennings was not strong enough to beat Orient as a Ian Bowyer goal clinched the points. Other London teams were not good enough to beat Orient in a special athletics event for profes- sional footballers held at Crystal Palace. Phil Hoadley won the long jump with 21', Dennis Rofe the 50 yard dash in 5.7 secs and these two combined with Fairbrother and Dyson to win the 4x100 metres relay in 44.4 secs. Runners-up were, Fairbrother in the 200 metres, Bobby Moss in the mile, Ray Goddard and Peter Bennett in the penalty-taking competition. My personal disappointment was seeing Gordon Riddick un- placed.  Centre stand tickets were being offered for the 72/3 season at £21.   The remaining three games saw Orient pick up only one point. 24 April. Home to Norwich (1-2 Bowyer). Rofe was injured but the changes seem strange. A planned tour of Isreal had to be cancelled. They settled for one match in Jersey. Programme team: Goddard, Hoadley(Arber), Rofe(Hoadley), Bennett, Harris, Allen, Fairbrother(Lazarus), Dyson(Brisley), Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Brisley(Riddick). 26 April.FA U16 1/2 Challenge Cup Semi-Final Home to Chelsea 0-0. Team: Mason, Merrals, Spring, Woodward, L.Moss, ?, R. Cunningham, Batho, Theodotou, Viner, Spicer. Subs Pritchard, Fisher. Only Roeder and Fisher made the first 11. For Chelsea only Teddy Maybank made it. 29 April. Away to Swindon (2-2 Walley, Allen). Programme team: Goddard, Barber(should be Arber)(Hoadley), Hoadley(Rofe), Bennett, Harris, Allen, Lazarus(Johnson), Brisley, Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Riddick(Lazarus). In the final match at Brisbane Road, on the day that the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died and Orient signed Derrick Downing from Middlesbro. 2 May. Home to Birmingham (0-1) beat us 1-0 in front of 33,383 spectators. Mark Lazarus played his last match for the O's having been granted a free transfer. Birmingham had to win to get promoted over Millwall, so the crowd was swollen by both sets of supporters. There was even a bomb scare which, when exploded, was nothing but than a large firework. The programme for the match highlighted the changes for the coming season. New floodlights and a change of training ground from Blake Hall to Springfield Park in Clapton. Goddard, Hoadley(Arber), Rofe, Bennett(Hoadley), Harris, Allen, Brisley(Lazarus), Dyson(Brisley), Bullock, Walley, Bowyer. Sub Dyson. The last match of the season saw Orient win the London Challenge Cup for the first time in 60 years when they beat Athenian League Dagenham 2-1 with both goals scored by Gordon Riddick. Programme team: Bowtell, Arber, Rofe, Bennett, Harris, Walley(Dyson), Fairbrother, Brisley, Riddick, Allen(Binks), Johnson subFilby, I. I think with that team they were determined to win it. Orient finished 17th in the league on 37 points, our average home attendance was 10,816. Top scorer was Ian Bowyer on 16, fol- lowed by Mickey Bullock on 13 and Barry Dyson on 10.      Bullock, Bennett, Bowtell, Mancini, Goddard, Riddick, Lazarus. Middle row: Sewell, Allen, Dyson, Harris, Tomkins?, Jones, Bowyer. Front row: Fairbrother, Brisley, Rofe. Previous page 1968/69 and 69/70      Next page 1972-1973.