To help fill the Orient-less void in which we find ourselves, here is the first part of a look back at the season that was. A season that I think all of us can agree was more than successful in establishing ourselves back in the third tier for the first time in eight years, and if we hadn’t had such cruel luck with injuries to key players may have been even better. 

August 2023

It all got underway with the relatively short hop over the river Thames to face Charlton. The anticipation of our first season back in League 1 since 2014/15 saw 3000+ of us crammed into the Valley’s somewhat “cozy” away end. The O’s acquitted themselves well against a more established and experienced League 1 side, but ultimately were undone by a defensive error just before the break which the Addicks punished ruthlessly.

While we tried hard to get back on terms for most of the second half we just couldn’t find a way through the massed Charlton ranks.  In the end we had to settle for an opening day defeat but there was enough in the performance to suggest that once we found our feet at this level we should be able to compete.

That loss was followed just three days later by elimination from the EFL Cup at the hands of familiar cup opponents Plymouth Argyle. While the opening home match of the season saw us host one of the favourites for promotion and the title, Portsmouth. The 4-0 loss while humbling to say the least provided a clear indication of the step up in level.

Next on our travels was a trip to the Buckinghamshire market town of High Wycombe. The match was something of rollercoaster. After falling behind just 15 minutes in due to some sloppy defending, we equalised before halftime with our first goal of the season through Ruel Sotiriou. However Dan Happe’s red card five minutes after the break meant we were going to be up against it for the majority of the second period.

Despite being a man down we seemed to raise our game but once again conceded a sloppy goal. When Wycombe made it 3-1 with just six minutes of normal time remaining, it felt as if the match was very much done and dusted. However when Sotiriou pulled a goal back just a couple of minutes later, there was a brief flurry of hope through the away end. Sadly it wasn’t to be, and we fell to a third consecutive defeat in our opening league matches.

The trip to Blackpool very happily for us coincided with the missus’ birthday and we could think of no better way of spending it than a trip to the North West seaside. The great British weather even played it’s part and blessed us with some sunshine.

A hard fought goalless draw gained us our first point of the season, thanks in no small part to a much improved performance from the previous Tuesday evening at Wycombe by Sam Howes, deputising in goal for the injured Sol Brynn. In celebration the better half and I decided to “treat” ourselves to not one, but two, rides on the utterly insane Skycoaster: basically a crane that winches you up above the fun fair on the pier, then at the top you pull the release cord and fly out over the sea.

Next up were two home Saturday matches in a row the first against at the time top of the table Cambridge United. At the fourth time of asking we finally got our first league win of the season thanks to goals from Shaq Forde and Theo Archibald.

September 2023

The feelgood factor created by the victory over Cambridge wasn’t to last very long however as we were brought down to earth by a 3-0 defeat at the hands of our old friends Stevenage.  Steve Evans’ men simply did what they had done to us in our last encounter at their place the previous January: dominating physically and getting the ball into our penalty area effectively and efficiently. Thankfully we were to learn our lessons from this defeat and gain some measure of revenge later in the season.

There was a midweek trip to Gillingham in the “Pizza Cup” (as it was still known at the time), in which we seemed to be very much in control thanks to an own goal by the Gills’ Glenn Morris, until some “interesting” refereeing saw the dismissal of both Shaq Forde and new loan signing Brandon Cooper within the space of just three minutes.

Presumably as a result of the way that Stevenage had been too strong for our backline, the trip to Exeter in scorching temperatures, saw us use three centre backs with Tom James, Omar Beckles and Brandon Cooper all starting and Theo Archibald and Jordan Graham being deployed as wingbacks. While this may not have been Richie Wellens’ preferred set up, it was a system that would serve to steady the ship over the next few weeks.  

After going a goal down against the run of play early in the second half, Joe Pigott drew us level with a smart finish on the turn (yes you read that right, it was indeed our much maligned number 9!), before Ruel Sotiriou struck to seal all three points in the second minute of added time. Ruel’s winner sparked crazy scenes in the away end with a significant number of travelling O’s fans waving their tops around their heads, while another was a tad overexuberant in his celebrations and ended up being escorted off the pitch.

Just a week later we were off to Peterborough, while it wasn’t anywhere near as swelteringly hot as it had been in Exeter, the sunny weather made the pre-match preparations in Charters riverside bar very enjoyable. A battling 1-1 draw against one of the stronger teams in the division helped us to keep the momentum going.

There was a midweek clash against Fulham Under-21’s in the EFL Trophy to follow, which despite the O’s coming back from 2-1 down to draw and take the extra point on penalties, may have been most notable for the fact that one of the scorers for Fulham that evening was a certain Ollie O’Neill, who we were soon to get to know a lot better.

A fairly routine 1-0 win over Shrewsbury was followed by another trip to Blackpool, this time to take on Fleetwood Town. A second half goal from Jack Marriott in seemingly never-ending drizzle was enough to secure the victory for the home side.

October 2023

The disappointment of the loss at Fleetwood was put into stark and deeply sad perspective at Brisbane Road the following Tuesday evening. Anyone who was there that evening when Derek Reynolds was so tragically taken from the Orient family, couldn’t have helped but be moved by it. We can only hope that Derek’s family and friends could take some solace from the fact that he passed away doing what he loved and had been doing for so many years. As much as we all love following the O’s and being passionate about results and how the team is performing, it is important to remember that it really is only a game.

The O’s righted the ship after the defeat at Fleetwood with a comfortable enough win at home to ongoing crisis club Reading thanks to goals from Jordan Brown and a 90^th minute winner from George Moncur after Tyler Bindon had pulled one back for the Royals.

It was then onto Cumbria to face fellow promoted side Carlisle amidst all the fun and games of another train strike. A scuffed Ruel Sotiriou effort that somehow crept into the bottom corner was enough to seal the win against a team that struggled all season and were ultimately relegated back to the fourth tier.

Next we faced another of the fancied teams for promotion, Barnsley, at home and were leading through a Joe Pigott penalty just before the half hour mark, only to be pinned back late in the game by a Herbie Kane equalizer. Still, I think many of us took it as a further indicator of our ability to compete with the top teams in the league.

The following Tuesday evening it was a solo trip to Northampton for yours truly, as the better half had “completely unintentionally” (yeah right!) arranged a work trip to avoid going back to Sixfields, which along with Stevenage is her least favourite ground to visit. We opened the scoring thanks to a goal from an unexpected source in Rob Hunt after a flowing passing move.

However just when we thought we had done enough, the scoreline was reversed completely by two goals, one a penalty, from Sam Hoskins in the space of just three minutes at the start of the second half. Annoyingly the lack of flexibility of our country’s wonderful train booking system, meant that I had to get going to the station just before the end and missed Shaq Forde’s dramatic injury time equalizer, although rest assured I heard it as I was crossing the retail park at the top of the hill!

The final match of the month was the much anticipated trip to Burton, a team that Orient had never faced in the entirety of our histories. Probably the least said about the match itself the better, it was the very definition of a 0-0 stalemate with little in the way of real chances for either side. Of course the match will stick in the minds of Orient fans as the moment when Jordan Graham so sadly picked up his season-ending injury. Thankfully he now seems to be on the mend, and we can look forward to seeing what he can do for us in the seasons to come.

It may not have been plain sailing all of the way, but after the first three months of the campaign we were nestled nicely in midtable. Stay posted from next week’s edition as we head through the late autumn and into winter and we also get the much-anticipated return to fitness of a certain Dan Agyei after his incredibly unlucky pre-season injury.

Up the O’s!