After our fantastic run of form following the defeat up at Bolton, things just seem to have gone off the boil a little bit for our O’s. In fact since that cruel defeat at Barnsley, while we have registered three wins in our last seven matches, it is the frustrating defeats at home to Burton and Bristol Rovers (Wigan felt slightly different as it was away, and we were down to ten men for the entirety of the second half) and Tuesday night’s stalemate at home to lowly Port Vale that have rankled me to an extent.

We of course would have been deluding ourselves if we thought we could just carry on our superb form and keep sweeping teams aside on a relentless run to the play-offs, especially given the number of injuries we have picked along the way. However it does feel as if the team has run out of steam as fatigue and a feeling of jadedness have set in.

Starting with the trip to Wigan last Saturday, which was a game that changed the moment that Ethan Galbraith, rightly I have to say, was shown a second yellow card for a high boot. While we started the game pretty well, and it may be down to personal pessimism, but it didn’t feel like we were on the verge of finding the breakthrough.

Then when Galbraith was given his marching orders just before the half-time break, our response was to try to be more defensive and hold onto what we had. Experience tells us that often that is a risky approach to adopt. While we managed to keep Wigan out for most of the second half, once Jason Kerr nodded the Latics in front with just over quarter of an hour remaining, you just knew that we weren’t going to have a response in us.

Speaking after the match Richie Wellens suggested that “we just lacked that little bit of quality, that little bit of magic in the final third” and pointed to the fact that both Shaq Forde and Ollie O’Neill “looked a little bit leggy”. We discussed in last week’s post (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings- Orient frustrated by another home defeat but we need to remain realistic.) that while it might seem ridiculous to suggest that young players are fatigued, the heavy schedule and the lack of options for rotation due to all the injuries, mean that our available younger players need to try and reach the requisite levels each time we take to the pitch. I have never been one for wishing how things might be better in different circumstances, but would we be struggling to break defences down so much if Theo Archibald, Jordan Graham and Dan Agyei were all available?

The goalless draw on Tuesday evening (not a game that will live long in the memory it has to be said!) was another classic example of us not being able to break through an organised defence. While the stats suggest that we had nearly 60% of the possession, other than the penalty shout we had when Shaq Forde went down in the box in the first half and the late effort by Ruel Sotiriou that was tipped onto the crossbar by their keeper, it was the visitors that looked the most likely to open the scoring.

In fairness we did try something different by deploying Joe Pigott initially as the lone striker and then in tandem with Sotiriou, but Pigott seems so bereft of confidence given the way that things have worked out for him this season, that always felt like something of a hopeful roll of the dice. Speaking after the Port Vale game Richie concluded that it “was the poorest we have played for a long, long time”. For me it was the tempo and crispness that we have had in our best performances that seem to have gone missing in recent weeks. Obviously that can for a large part be put down to the fatigue and jadedness that we touched upon earlier, but it just feels like we need to find a way to change the way we play, get at teams more effectively, and threaten the opposition’s goal more than we are currently managing to do.

While I completely get that recent performances have been for the most part frustrating, the wins at Oxford and at home to Blackpool aside, it is important to remember just how far we have come. Last Saturday marked the second anniversary of Richie being appointed as our manager, at the time we were very much in the doldrums of poor form and nervously looking over our shoulders, fearing a potentially disastrous return to non-league and what that might have meant for our beloved club.

Fast forward to the present and we find ourselves sitting in 10^th spot in League 1, having won the League 2 title and made some fantastic memories along the way, not just from last season but during this campaign as well. All of this without ever being able to field our first choice eleven at any point during this season. However you look at it, it is something worth celebrating.

Going into 2023/24 I think quite a few of us had a slight worry about how we would fare against better quality opposition, but we haven’t just held our own we have beaten teams with bigger budgets and more experience of playing at a higher level than us. The fact that qualifying for the play-offs even featured in our thoughts is clear evidence of the development of what is still largely a relatively young squad. If we can carry on our current longer term trajectory then we have to be excited for what our team might be able to achieve in the coming years.

Before then though we still have eight matches to play, and hopefully enjoy(!), starting with a trip to face our old friend Steve Evans and his Stevenage side on Saturday. I am pretty sure Richie, the players and all of us know what to expect from the match and their approach. But, if we can learn the lessons of the past, especially that 3-0 humbling back at the start of September, match their challenge physically and stay disciplined and composed, wouldn’t it be great to turn them over at their place and put something of a dent in Mr Evans’ play-off aspirations? Here’s hoping as they say!

Up the O’s!