Often in football when a team is mired in a bit of a slump something unexpected can act as a catalyst and spark it back into form. While I don’t think Orient’s recent upturn in fortunes can be put solely down to Josh Keeley’s extraordinary equalizer and Dan Agyei’s late winner against Oldham in the FA Cup, that win certainly seems to have given the whole squad a lift.

Of course we have to take into consideration the level of the opposition involved, but four wins on the bounce in different competitions, seems to have re-energised the players and snapped what was a pretty dismal run of form.

Ever since the missus’ and my Orient adventure began, my cousin Ian (for those of you that have read the book – yes, the same cousin that indoctrinated me at an early age and turned me into an Arsenal fan!), has taken an increasing interest in the fortunes of Orient and what following a team in the lower leagues is like. As he lives near Warrington we have for the last few seasons been trying to find a match in the North West to introduce him to the magical experience that is an Orient awayday.

We came very close a couple of years ago when we had booked tickets for the match at Crewe, only for that game to fall victim to a frozen pitch, and while other opportunities didn’t quite work out, we settled on a trip to Wigan in early December for his and his partner Liane’s introduction to the Orient travelling family.

With family living locally, Kay and I decided that a long weekend in Liverpool would be the perfect pe-Christmas break. However when we heard the weather forecast for the weekend and the predicted arrival of Storm Darragh, we started to worry about whether we would be able to make it up north and if the match would even go ahead.

Thankfully we arrived in Liverpool almost on schedule on Friday afternoon, the only slight delay coming from someone pulling the passenger alarm when they realised they had almost missed their stop(!) and speed restrictions imposed by the severe weather. Not too bad from our “favourite” train company Avanti West Coast!

We woke up early on Saturday morning (thank you Sky for another lunchtime kick-off!), and while we were getting ourselves organised were hit with the double whammy of news that not only had the Merseyside Derby been postponed due to the extreme weather but that our originally booked train through to Wigan had been cancelled. It came as a huge relief to find that a slower train was still running and would get us into Wigan for 10:30 and the news coming from both Orient and Wigan Athletic was that the game was still scheduled to go ahead. We decided to adopt our usual approach in these situations and proceed as planned until it was no longer possible.

As it turned out we arrived in Wigan on schedule and set about finding somewhere to shelter from the grim weather. Ok, ok we headed straight for the Dog & Patridge, a “salubrious” establishment in which I found out the following day at Sunday lunch one of my aunties had met my uncle.

Not fancying the 20 minute or so walk up to the ground in horrid conditions, we made our way back to the station to sort out a cab. As soon as we arrived at the stadium we bumped into the Picnic Crew who had spent the evening in town. Definitely not an option for those of us with St Helens roots! 

Not fancying spending any more time outside, the better half headed straight into the ground while I waited for Ian and Liane to give them their tickets. As one of the stewards searched her bag he enquired whether she had any vodka or similar in there? When she replied in the negative he jokingly referred her to a shop round the corner where she could get some and share it with them as they still had at least another hour to go in the blustery wind and rain.

After catching up with and introducing Ian and Liane to a fair chunk of the travelling Orient faithful, we headed out to the seats. We opted for a seat relatively high up in an endeavour to secure as much shelter as possible.

Despite the conditions both teams tried to play decent football, Stevenage a couple of weeks ago in similar weather this wasn’t(!), and the opening stages were fairly well balanced. Perhaps a key moment came when Dom Ball put in what can only be described as a “reducer” on Dione Rankine which led to the lively Wigan winger having to leave field. With him went a lot of the home side’s impetus and threat.

As we approached half-time Dan Agyei broke down the right wing, beat his man for pace and played a lovely low ball across the face of goal where a combination of Jayden Sweeney and a Wigan defender were on hand to turn it home. In the end the goal was deservedly credited to the Orient man.

The second half remained a fairly interesting watch with the O’s arguably in control, but with just the single goal lead there is always the fear that a mistake might undo our good work up to that point. We had a glorious opportunity to seal the match late on when substitute Ethan Galbraith broke through the middle and set up Charlie Kelman, only for the on loan forward to drag his shot across the face of goal and wide.

In the end the match was settled when man-of-the-moment Josh Keeley used the wind to flight a beautiful goal kick over the top and Diallang Jaiyesimi was able to nick the ball away from a Wigan defender and their keeper and roll it into the empty net. Job very much done!

On Tuesday night we were off on the short hop to Charlton for the first knockout stage of the EFL Trophy. While I completely get the antipathy towards this competition by many fans, for us living closer to the Valley than we do to Brisbane Road, we simply couldn’t not go. It seems we were not alone in our reasoning as more than 300 others had also made their way to South London, despite it being a chilly old evening. A definite “Bovril evening” if ever there was one!

Despite several changes to the first choice eleven and players such as Dom Ball, Dan Happe, Tom James and Josh Keeley being given the night off, we dominated the game right from the start having a number of shots at goal, frustratingly most of which seemed to be straight at the Charlton keeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer.

The game carried on in pretty much the same vein in the second half with only one or two moments where Charlton threatened, but we couldn’t find the breakthrough ourselves. Just as it felt as if we were heading to the inevitable penalty shootout, we called up some of our added time magic again. First Charlie Kelman, after being set up by Dan Agyei, found the back of the net via a defender’s chest. While it looked for all the world like an own goal it was credited to Kelman, which will hopefully give him a boost as if ever a player needed a goal, he certainly did.

Then having missed a chance moments before, Agyei picked up the ball on halfway wide on the right, raced down the right wing, cut inside onto his left foot and fired a rocket into the top left hand corner. Another sign that Agyei is getting back to the player we all hope/know he is.

The win takes us through to the Round of 16 which remains regionalised in which we could get: Birmingham, Cheltenham, Colchester, Stevenage, Swindon, Walsall or Peterborough/ Northampton. You never know, as much maligned as this competition is, we might just be on the road to Wembley.

Before we even think about that, we now head into the busy festive period, starting with the visit of Burton Albion to Brisbane Road in another lunchtime kick-off (grrrrr!) tomorrow afternoon. With the Brewers struggling at the bottom of the table with just two wins to their name, this promises to be something of a different challenge. If we can play like we have been over the last few matches then there is every reason to believe we can find a way to open them up, score the goals we need, and continue to build on our momentum.

Up The O’s!