After three highly impressive victories away at Cambridge and Portsmouth and then at home against Bolton, it felt a little bit frustrating to be held to a draw at ongoing crisis club Reading. Maybe I had allowed myself to get carried away thinking we would simply take the game to our opponents, get the goals we needed, pick up the three points and continue to build on the momentum we had been generating.

Perhaps I should have read the warning signs when Reading beat high-flying Derby County at home the previous Tuesday evening, but I had (mistakenly as it turned out!) just put that down to one of those surprise results that struggling teams pull off from time to time.

On the face of it the performance itself wasn’t in any way poor, it just felt that going ahead thanks to Dan Agyei’s 19^th minute penalty, making it goals in four consecutive matches for him, had put us very much in control. To then be pegged back just four minutes later when Harvey Knibbs (I could have sworn the announcer said “Harvey Nicks” when announcing the goal!) turned home a low corner, it really seemed to take the wind out of our sails to an extent. The second half was fairly evenly matched and in the end we had to settle for a point, which may have ended our perfect start to 2024 but also extended our unbeaten run to six matches.

Despite the slight frustration of the result, it was another enjoyable awayday, as all of them have been so far this season. After all the fun of our trip to Fratton Park in the company of Herman (aka Leyton Laureate), this time we were joined on our travels by regular home game associate Chris, and we also caught up with Nicky from the RainbO’s on the connecting train from Reading station.

As we were starting to plan this trip, the missus was absolutely adamant that we wouldn’t be going the whole way on the Lizzy Line. She assured me that this was because it wouldn’t feel like a proper awayday unless we were getting a “big train” there, and of course nothing to do with not being able to have a beer on what is essentially an oversized tube line!

In the end after a “selective” search on TFL, she managed to find a suitable train leaving Paddington that would arrive nicely just before midday. The extent of her research was such that she also discovered that there was a relatively newly opened station, Reading Green Park, that was only a 15 minute walk from the ground.

Having arrived in Reading on schedule and with plenty of time to kill until a suitable train to the ground, we headed straight to the Three Guineas, literally next door to the station housed in what used to be the ticket office. Given the relatively mild late January weather, we opted to sit outside with a table that also had a garden swing bench, much to Chris’ delight.

Despite fairly recently featuring in the Premier League, I had only ever been to Reading once previously, which was for a charity auction a good few years back. I was anticipating it being one of those soulless, out of town, new build stadiums that seem to continue to spring up around the leagues. However it isn’t as bad as feared, and for once one of these types of stadium that actually feels like it has some form of character. As someone said on social media afterwards, if Orient ever do find themselves building a new ground, this would be a handy model to follow. Food for thought for the Orient board perhaps?

With no midweek action for the O’s and the transfer window drawing to a close, Orient-focused social media went into rumour overdrive this week, with stories about Aaron Drinan going to Carlisle only for them to pull out of the reportedly agreed deal (trying desperately hard to resist the obvious joke about how they must have seen him play in training, or he got injured on the way up there!).

Then came the suggestion that Joe Pigott was on his way to Wimbledon only for that move to be apparently kiboshed due to an injury to one of our forwards. This is when the rumour mill really notched up a gear with suggestions that Dan Agyei had done his hamstring and would be ruled out for the remainder of the season. As things stand at the time of writing (Friday morning) the club have neither confirmed nor denied whether Agyei is injured, and we will just have to wait for further news- most likely when the line-ups are announced tomorrow afternoon.

We then had the announcement in midweek that Adam Thompson had joined Barnet on loan until the end of the season. In many ways the cruel injury up at Grimsby just a month after signing for us in the lockdown season, was one from which he never really recovered to play regularly enough. All we can do is thank him for his contribution as a squad member and wish him well for the future. 

On Thursday evening we got the news of two more departures and two on loan arrivals. First came the news that Aaron Drinan had joined Swindon on a permanent basis. As decent as Drinan was in his first season, scoring 16 goals in all competitions lest we forget, since getting injured ahead of the 2022/23 campaign he has been a shadow of his former self and seemingly bereft of any confidence whatsoever. Try as the coaching staff and he did, Driz never truly looked like getting back to the level that he was at, or indeed making any real case for a starting berth in our current line-up. Maybe the reset will prove to be what he needs to get his career going again.

Following quickly after that announcement came the news that Ed Turns had been recalled by Brighton and then loaned out immediately to Crewe. While it is completely understandable that his parent club want their developing defender to get decent game time, and Ed was sadly down the pecking order at Orient this season, the move for me does leave us a little light in terms of defensive cover.

Next came the announcement of two incoming young forwards on loan: Daniel Adu-Adjei an 18 year old who has been banging in the goals for Bournemouth’s development squad, and Khayon Edwards from Arsenal. I have to say I don’t know too much about Edwards other than to say that he is 20 years old and coming to the end of his contract, so this move feels as much about putting himself in the shop window as anything. The addition of two forward players does however increase my personal anxiety that the Agyei rumours may in fact be true. We have only had the briefest of glimpses of just how good he is as a striker, but to lose him for any period of time is a major cause for concern.

Next up of course it is Carlisle at Brisbane Road tomorrow afternoon. The Cumbrians currently sit second bottom and look like they have got quite a fight on their hands to avoid an immediate return to League 2. Having beaten them twice this season already, we have to be confident of getting a win and extending our unbeaten run.

Before signing off for this week it would be completely remiss of me if I didn’t mention ex-O Big George Elokobi and his Maidstone side’s heroics in the FA Cup. Not content with putting a smile on all Orient fans’ faces by knocking out Steve Evans’ Stevenage, they then went to Ipswich and managed to pull off another stunning win despite the Tractor Boys having a total of 38 shots on goal to their two, football eh, isn’t it just mad sometimes? The Stones will now travel to either Coventry of Sheffield Wednesday in the next round and I for one will be keeping an eye on the match to see if they can do it again. 

Up the O’s!