So just like that any vague hopes of the O’s making a push for the play-offs were handed a blow by a resolute and organised Burton Albion side. The defeat felt frustrating because it seemed like the visitors had come to not be beaten rather than win the match, and despite having 75% of the possession (83% in the first half alone!) all we could muster in the way of a goal was a 43^rd minute penalty converted by George Moncur.

As seems to be happening on a weekly basis at the moment, we had another bizarre encounter on the way to the match when we bumped into one of our mates from our local pub, Jon from Halifax with his mate Scott, as we were coming out of Coronation Gardens. It seems the O’s word is continuing to spread far and wide. We headed off to the Supporters Club to introduce our potential new fans to as many of the usual gang as we could.

There were only two changes to the team from the dramatic late win over Northampton the previous Tuesday: Darren Pratley replaced the suspended Jordan Brown, and Rob Hunt replaced TJ who is very clearly trying to manage his way through an injury. On the face of it that shouldn’t have caused us too many difficulties, but for some reason (fatigue from Tuesday evening and our busy recent run perhaps?) we just seemed off the pace right from the start.

Burton for their part were very well organised, but for me we didn’t seem to move the ball anywhere near quickly enough to disrupt their defensive shape. I lost count of the number of times that Ethan Galbraith was in acres of space out on the right hand side, but by the time we moved the ball across the pitch the Burton defenders had already shuffled over. Equally despite enjoying so much possession, we seemed to be a bit shot shy, mustering a total of ten, five of which were on target.

On another day maybe we could have seen the game out at 1-0, but the familiar failing of defensive errors was to rear its head again. As we entered the final 20 minutes of the match first Omar Beckles gave the ball away with a sloppy pass, Burton broke into our box and Mason Bennett fired past Sol Brynn at his near post. Then just four minutes later Brynn seemed to stumble as a ball came into the box and Aristote Nsiala was on hand to prod it home.

This time there was to be no late rescue act and we were consigned to our second defeat in our last three matches. Blackpool’s win at Peterborough meant we dropped to ninth in the table. Next up of course is a trip to Oxford who sit in fifth spot, nine points ahead of us albeit having played a game more. While the play-offs may have been a lovely dream when we were in the middle of our brilliant unbeaten run, it feels as if the return of defensive mistakes and an ongoing bluntness in front of goal, might make that beyond us for this season. As the club and a lot of fans have said so far this term: a comfortable mid-table finish feels a realistic ambition, especially taking into consideration the number of injuries we are having to deal with right now.

 On Tuesday evening the better half and I were booked in for the Supporters Club’s “Evening with Richie Wellens”, however we found out once we had arrived in Leyton that Richie had had to cancel the evening, but Paul Terry would be filling in. Once we arrived at the Club it eased our worries when we found out that the gaffer had made a last minute decision to go and watch Oxford ahead of Saturday’s game. Priorities and all that!

Despite having it sprung upon him and admitting early in the Q&A that he had no ambitions to become a manager himself, our assistant manager acquitted himself well. The evening was expertly compered by Barri (who also made it clear that if we did need a goalkeeper in the future he was still very much available!) and facilitated by Nathan who covered quite some distance transporting the single microphone around the club. The questions covered quite a broad range of subjects, but here is a brief summary of some of the key points:

• The lack of available centre backs is obviously a concern, and they are looking into options of anyone they might be able to bring in, but equally Darren Pratley, Tom James and Jordan Brown could also provide cover.

• Following on from the above, the decision to recall Ed Turns and then loan him to Crewe was Brighton’s as the parent club, we very much wanted to keep him.

•  Stevenage, and before last week Northampton, are very much our bogey teams.

• The coaching staff were (as were us the fans!) very sad to lose Lawrence Vigouroux and Paul Smyth at the end of last season.

• Despite capably filling in at full back Ethan Galbraith’s future is very much intended to be in midfield either as a number 8 or 10, depending on how we set up the team.

• As a result of all the recent injuries we would obviously love to have a bigger squad but of course that has financial implications as well as the need to ensure that all squad members feel that they are involved.

• Paul’s brother being involved in Chelsea’s academy does mean that he is able to recommend players, but Cheslea ideally see their loanees playing at a higher level.

•  There was apparently interest in Idris El Mizouni from other clubs in January, but we were obviously relieved to be able to hold onto him.

• Despite some probing from different members of the audience (hi Darin!), Paul admitted that while there was some frustration that we weren’t able to secure some of our identified targets in the January transfer window, there is no problem between the transfer committee and coaching staff.

The whole session provided an open and interesting insight into how the club operates behind the scenes on the playing side, and hopefully there will be other similar evenings going forward. For now all we can do is to hope that Richie’s scouting mission to the Kassam Stadium has borne fruit in terms of some tactical insight into how we might be able to secure the result we would all so desperately love on Saturday.

Up the O’s!