A slightly briefer round-up of all things Orient this week, as the missus and I have been in my “hometown” of Rotterdam this week. While unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow us to catch a Feyenoord match, it did provide an ideal tonic from the frustration at The Valley last Saturday.

Thanks to another altered kick-off time it was a relatively early start for us on the very short trip south of the river to Charlton. Although the lunchtime kick-off did mean that we had to rethink our pre-match preparations from last season. Thankfully, after no formal advance planning whatsoever, we bumped into regular Orient-watching mate Chris when we were changing trains at Greenwich, who suggested we head to the Angerstein Hotel which was the designated away fans’ pub and had opened at 10am especially for thirsty O’s fans.

The best way to get to the pub is to get off at the stop before Charlton, Westcombe Park, and from there it is an easy stroll down the hill. The pub felt like it had been recently refurbished, with a fairly spacious beer garden at the front, and much to the better half’s delight an old school London seafood stall. The ground is only a quarter of an hour stroll away so if/when we visit The Valley again we know where we’ll be headed to before the match!

In last week’s blog (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings- A frustrating opening result but plenty to build upon.) we reflected on the fact that Orient had perhaps been a little bit “naïve” in letting a point slip away late in the match against Bolton, sadly there was to be a familiar feeling as we lost the game thanks to an added time winner by Luke Berry, although it has to be said our defending on the goal left a lot to be desired.

The first half had been fairly even, Orient were lucky to keep 11 men on the pitch after Sean Clare’s desperate lunge midway through the opening period attracted only a yellow card. While referee Mr Duckworth was generally poor throughout the entire match, having seen the replays of Clare’s tackle we definitely got lucky there.

Whether it was Charlton gaining greater control of the match, or us trying to hold on to secure a clean sheet and a point, but we simply didn’t muster much of an attacking threat in the second half. Berry’s winner felt like even more of a sucker punch than Adeboyejo’s for Bolton the previous week.

We know the threat that a frontline of Kelman, Agyei and O’Neill can potentially offer, but for large parts of the second half our front three were isolated and unable to impact the match as we would hope they might.

It was also interesting that new loanee from Tottenham, Jamie Donley, slotted straight into a starting berth in the number 10 spot as a result of an injury to Ethan Galbraith. All through the summer I have been convinced that, as long as he is available, Galbraith was nailed on as the first choice attacking midfielder, so I wonder what the plans are going forward? It would seem a strange decision to bring in a reportedly talented youngster to have him play second fiddle to Galbraith. So it remains to be seen whether the Northern Irishman will slot in somewhere else when Donley plays, or whether (please no!!!) there has been a significant offer from elsewhere for Galbraith’s services.

During the week we also got the news that George Moncur had joined Southend United on a season long loan, that will, presumably, see out the remainder of his contract. I can’t be alone in feeling a little bit sad about what might have been with this one. There is clearly a highly talented footballer there, but other than the odd performance/ run of games it really doesn’t seem as if we have seen the best of what Moncs could contribute to the team. He will always be remembered for being in the squad that won the League 2 title in 2022/23, but perhaps the move was the best option from both sides.

Next up it is of course the visit of Birmingham City tomorrow afternoon (at 3pm- halleluiah!). While we know that this is going to be one of the toughest fixtures of the season, it really does feel as we need to put in a decent performance and start to build some momentum after two frustrating defeats. If we end up being humbled as we were by Portsmouth in the early part of last season, it is hard not to worry about what impact that might have on our confidence going forward. To get a result we need to more solid at the back and show more of what we know we can do up front.

After that it is of course the trip to the New Den to face Millwall in the League Cup, while a cup run would be welcome amongst the fan base, and of course the board, our immediate on-pitch priorities are on getting the points on the board in the league. For now let’s look forward to tomorrow afternoon and what might just turn into an exciting match.   

Up the O’s!