Well that was all a bit depressing wasn’t it? After the thumping win at Exeter just four days previously, Orient’s performance in the 1-0 defeat at home to Stockport on Saturday just felt very flat. It was far from being the “absolute humdinger of a match” that I was anticipating in last week’s post (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings- Full Steam Ahead on the Orient Express!).

Credit to Dave Challinor and his Stockport side as they clearly came with a well thought out game plan, executed it very effectively, especially in the first half, and frustrated Orient as no opponent had managed for quite some time. Having said that though, for our part we just looked off the pace right throughout the match. It felt very much like a game that was a step too far after what has been an excellent unbeaten run.

Whether it was fatigue, the impact of more injuries, or maybe even a touch of “bigcuptieitis” (when players subconsciously play within themselves so as not to miss out on big matches looming on the horizon), is impossible to know for sure; but we just didn’t seem capable of putting in the effort required to allow us to impose our game on the opposition.

The fact that our first and only(!) shot on target came in the 40^th minute, tells you all you need to know about the lacklustre nature of our display. While we tried to get back into the match in the second half, we just couldn’t seem to fashion the genuine chance that we so desperately needed.  

Speaking after the match a clearly disappointed, angry even, Richie Wellen suggested: “we started really slow, started lethargic, passed the ball slow[ly], no second balls [won], no duels [won],”. While he was spot on in his assessment, he also rightly suggested that “it wasn’t like us”, especially considering the way we had performed over the preceding 11 league matches.

This happens in football, all good runs come to an end, but personally I think we can cut the players a bit of slack given how they have turned our season around completely since the end of November. Where previously we were looking over our shoulders at the relegation places, now we are disappointed as we have lost to a play-off rival. Hopefully we can put Saturday’s display down to simply being a bad day at the office.

We of course have a bit of a break from the league this weekend with the visit of a certain club from Manchester in the FA Cup (more on that later). However once that is done and dusted, we are back in league action against Mansfield on Tuesday evening, and then against Lincoln on Saturday. The important thing is to try and pick up where we left off, put the sub-par performance against Stockport down to experience and look to get on another run and rekindle our momentum. We have put ourselves in too good a position to let it drift away now.

One of the other things that came out of Richie’s post-match interview was the swiftly edited suggestion that he wouldn’t use injuries as an excuse in the same way as a potentially under fire manager of a club based in N17 may have tended to do.

Of course Richie shouldn’t have said what he said about a fellow manager, it was right for an apology to be issued, and for it to be edited out of the video, but it hardly merited the hysterical reaction from certain areas of social media. Besides I am sure there may be a few Tottenham fans who have thought along similar lines, given their results this season!

It was a busy transfer deadline day for the O’s with two more new signings being announced relatively late in the day. The first was Randell Williams a wing-back/ winger from Bolton, coming in on a short-term contract until the end of the season. The second being Rarmani Edmonds-Green, a centre back from Charlton for an undisclosed fee on a two-and-a-half year deal.

Speaking about the new additions Director of Football Martin Ling suggested it had been a successful transfer window and that the four (five including securing Sonny Perkins on a permanent deal) signings we have made were all in areas of the pitch where we needed to add players and to strengthen for the run-in.

Obviously we have a bit more of an appreciation for what Dilan Markanday and Azeem Abdulai can contribute having seen them in action, but if “Reg” (as it seems he is destined to be called!) can go some way to filling the Omar Beckles-sized hole in our defence, and Williams can give us another wide option in attack, then they will be welcome additions.

Sadly we weren’t able to add the new striker that Richie made it clear that he desperately wanted, but with Dan Agyei rumoured to be close to a return we just have to hope that he can share the workload at centre forward with Charlie Kelman.

The other piece of very positive transfer news was that we rejected a £1m bid from Swansea City for Ethan Galbraith. While I am sure that the cash would have shaved a chunk off our ongoing operating losses, we would have been scrambling around at a very late stage for a replacement.

While it may well be that we lose the young Northern Irishman in the future (personally I can’t help but think that is why Abdulai has been signed on a permanent basis), it is a real statement to keep hold of him for now and to see where we are in the summer. Being completely happy-clappy, Galbraith may well have the opportunity to ply his trade in the Championship with Orient! (OK Gaz, time for a lie down!).

There are a total of 18 league games to go and, as we alluded to earlier on, there is everything to play for to make this a highly successful season. It feels as if we have used January to strengthen, and with some of those players currently missing potentially to return in coming weeks, it is almost as if we have had a bit of a reset ahead of the run-in. Back in the depths of autumn most of us probably felt that a spot in the top six was a distant pipe dream, now it feels as if it is a realistic ambition.  

Before we resume league action though there is the small matter of a visit by the reigning Premier League champions tomorrow lunchtime. In a funny way, as Martin Ling said, and as silly as it sounds, this is the least important of the matches we have coming up.

Of course it is a massive occasion for the club, the increased income and raised profile may have allowed us to do some of the business we did in the transfer window, but it also feels like a bit of a free hit. Nobody expects us to win, but if we did It would be one of those magical days that we will all remember for the rest of our lives.

From a supporter perspective, this is our reward for knocking out Derby on that incredibly tense evening a few weeks back, so we may as well relish it and enjoy it, but if we could just nick the first goal then you never know…

Up the O’s!