Football eh? What an emotional rollercoaster of a week it’s been for O’s fans. First we had the heartbreak of having what would have been a hugely impressive result at Oakwell snatched away from us having been leading going into the final two minutes; and then on Tuesday evening we were witness to what was quite simply one of the craziest football matches I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

Let’s start with the gut-wrenching result at Barnsley. As one of the bigger clubs in the division along with a ground that Orient haven’t visited too often in recent times this felt like a trip that was on many travelling O’s fans go-to lists for our return to League 1, however once again we were going to have some train-related fun and games.

The rather “interesting” approach they seem to use at St Pancras when other lines are suspended meant that people who hadn’t been able to get on earlier trains were encouraged to get our planned departure. Which of course meant that when we were finally allowed to get on our train, pretty much all the seats were taken. It was literally less than standing room only!

Thankfully we managed to find a seat for eighty year old Rose from the Picnic Crew, even though other passengers were showing no sign of sacrificing theirs. It was a bit of a hassle having to stand all the way to Sheffield, but the typical football camaraderie and banter helped to pass the time along. Although I suspect the other passengers may have been happier if we had based ourselves elsewhere! There were more train issues with a delay and then a platform change before we finally got to Barnsley just about half an hour after we were due to.

Once inside the ground (after a quick pit stop at The Mount pub in the company of regular Orient associate Chris of course!) we had the great pleasure of meeting the Punjabi O’s (@ThePunjabiOs), catching up with the Easy Lovers (Paul, Gary, Phil Bailey- no not that one!, and Harry Kane lookalike Mark, who we first met on a train back from Port Vale a couple of seasons back), and a whole host of the usual travelling O’s, which really helped to pass on the time until kick-off.

What can we say about the match itself? Going to fifth-placed Barnsley and getting a result was always going to be a big test for this developing O’s side, but when Ruel Sotiriou put us ahead with just 10 minutes on the clock you could feel a flicker of belief starting to permeate through the away end. Whether it was the injury that saw Dan Happe forced to leave the field, or the home side’s response to going behind, but from there on in we were pretty much under the cosh. Only some excellent saves from Sol Brynn and some last ditch defending kept our lead intact.

The second half was largely the same with us hanging on in the face of increasingly desperate pressure from Barnsley. Then as we entered the final two minutes of normal time, things just seemed to go completely awry. First Adam Phillips got to a hopeful ball into the box just ahead of Brynn and nodded the equalizer over our keeper and into the net. Then Luca Connell was shown a second yellow card for arguing about something at the restart and left the field, and then in the fifth minute of added time Phillips scored again snatching the win for the hosts and breaking the hearts of O’s fans. I think we all accepted that we would have it all to do to win a match as tough as this one, but to have come so close only to end up with nothing felt especially cruel.

If the trip to Oakwell wasn’t exciting enough, against Northampton on Tuesday evening what felt like a fairly run of the mill game against a familiar opposition seemed to take on a life of its own in terms of dramatic twists and turns.

It all seemed to be going along calmly enough when the hugely impressive Ollie O’Neill put us into the lead with ten minutes to go until the break. Even when Marc Leonard levelled the score for the visitors in added time, there still wasn’t any real hint of what was about to come in the second 45 minutes.

To try to summarise: Shaq Forde made it 2-1 just before the hour mark tapping home after Ollie O’Neil had had a shot saved. Northampton equalized through Kieron Bowie in the 77^th minute before Ruel Sotiriou (on as a surprise sub given that Richie had suggested he would miss out through injury) nodded home an O’Neill cross to make it 3-2 just three minutes later.

When Tyreece Simpson levelled things again with just seven minutes to go I think most of the home support resigned ourselves to two points dropped. Only for Ruel to do it again in the seventh minute of added time, volleying home after being played in by a cute ball over the top from Brandon Cooper. Cue complete and utter pandemonium around Brisbane Road, the whole place was rocking, and the buzz carried us all the way home despite the issues with the Central Line. Ultimately the victory only represents three points to the cause, but in the context of having been so cruelly robbed the previous Saturday, it was simply a magical game of football to watch.

The win lifted us up to eighth place in the table, seven points behind Oxford in sixth who we meet a week on Saturday of course. On the way back from Barnsley I had basically reached the conclusion that a play-off spot would most likely be beyond our reach, especially after Dan Agyei’s injury, but the way Forde, Sotiriou and now O’Neill have taken up the goalscoring burden has been very encouraging.

Khayon Edwards started the match due to the fitness concern with Ruel, he looked raw and in need of time to get up to speed with men’s football and the way we play but didn’t look out of his depth as our central striker. Dan Adu-Adjei made a brief and lively cameo and also looked able to contribute to our attacking threat.

For me the only dampener on our mood is the way that the injuries are starting to mount up. On Saturday we lost Dan Happe to a hamstring injury leaving us with just two fit, experienced, central defenders, and there has also been a suggestion that TJ is carrying an injury. Then on Tuesday we got the deeply saddening news that Theo Archibald needs a knee operation and won’t be available for quite some time. Those two added to Graham, Adjei, Sanders etc means that our squad feels pretty thin at the moment.

Next up of course is the visit of 18^th placed Burton to E10 tomorrow afternoon, without getting too carried away, this feels like a game from which we should be taking maximum points before we head off to face Oxford. As incredibly fun as Tuesday night was, a more controlled and steady performance would be more than welcome.

Up the O’s!