As the post that was doing the rounds on social media on Wednesday morning suggested: even Marvel Superhero Deadpool can’t stop the rampaging O’s!

We said at the end of last week’s post that we were heading into “a very important fortnight for the O’s and our play-off aspirations”. Well after two of those matches it has to be said so far, so very good indeed. I think the biggest takeaway from the victories at home over Lincoln and away in Tinseltown North Wales, was the sheer resilience and will to win that the squad displayed. In both matches we had to dig deep, find that little bit extra and find a way to win. Grit and determination are characteristics that this incarnation of the O’s seem to have in abundance.  

Things seemed to be going easily enough last Saturday afternoon when a brace from Sonny Perkins: the first a header, the second a decisive finish after he had cleverly been set up by Ethan Galbraith, saw us 2-0 up against the Imps before we had even played half an hour. However slowly but surely Lincoln managed to claw their way back into the match and to turn it into much more of a contest.

They pulled one back in added time at the end of the first half, the half having been extended after a devastating hamstring injury to Tom James. Then all through the second half you could almost feel Lincoln making the game more scrappy, more suited to the way they wanted to play, and more importantly to stop us from playing our game.

When James Collins bundled home the equalizer with just quarter of an hour remaining, I think most of us would have, reluctantly, settled for the draw; but this team keeps on showing that it is made of sterner stuff. In the second minute of injury time Ethan Galbraith claimed his hat-trick of assists landing a hopeful cross at the feet of Charlie Kelman who took a touch to set himself up and then fired home. Once again the whole ground went crazy at the recognition that we had nicked another 3 points right at the death. This team also seems to have a real flair for the dramatic.

Having read the excellent book “Tinseltown” by Ian Herbert, which the missus very kindly got me for Christmas, just a few weeks ago, I was keen to go to Wrexham to see what all the fuss was about, even if the EFL in their infinite “wisdom” nearly ruined that(!). We all know the story of how Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have bankrolled the Red Dragons through two successive promotions from the National League to challenging for automatic promotion to the Championship.

As something of a football fan traditionalist/ purist (inverted football snob?) I wanted to see if it felt real. Without dwelling on the whole Wrexham experience too deeply (although there may be some more detailed musings on that to come in the future!), suffice it to say that while it feels that the whole club is very much on an upward trajectory with the increase in budget, star signings, higher media profile and the ongoing developments to the ground; it does make you wonder how the more established fans feel about it all.

Does it still feel like a club still rooted in its community? Is it organic growth or does it seem more like a couple of celebrities picking a club, any club, on which to base their media project and TV series very much for their own gain? The one moment that stood out above all others was before the match when blaring out of the tannoy came the song “Always Sunny In Wrexham” by local band the Declan Swans with its nauseating chorus (I kid you not!) of: “Less than a mile from the centre of Town, A famous Old stadium crumbling down, No-one’s invested so much as a penny, Bring on the Deadpool and Rob McElhеnney.” Food for thought for our own club’s ownership especially with the news that broke earlier in the week, more on that later.

Going into the match at the Racecourse Ground I don’t think you would have found many of the hardy 500+ travelling Orient faithful who were confident of anything more than a point, as significantly the hosts had lost just once previously at home. A tough test indeed!

When Ollie Rathbone opened the scoring for Wrexham early in the match, I couldn’t help but fear that this might be a step too far for us. Oh how wrong could I be! It took all of 15 minutes for us to draw level, Darren Pratley clipped a ball into the box from the right wing, Charlie Kelman (stop me if you have heard this before!) controlled, swivelled and slotted the ball low in off the post into the far corner for his 10^th league goal of the season. The away end went bananas and pointed out to our hosts exactly what we thought of them and their high profile ownership.

Things were to go to another even crazier level for the travelling fans just 5 minutes after half-time when Jamie Donley, lurking unmarked on the edge of the penalty area, rifled a low volley from a half-cleared corner into the net to give us the lead. Seriously, can this kid get any more special?

The rest of the match felt very much a case of holding onto what we had in the face of increasingly desperate Wrexham attacks. Although we could have given ourselves breathing space very late on when Jordan Brown sent Dan Agyei and Azeem Abdulai racing clear towards goal. Somehow the pair of them faffed around so much that they spurned the opportunity allowing Wrexham to break, isolating Darren Pratley against Jack Marriot deep in our half. Knowing he didn’t have the legs; Prats dragged the younger man down and was rightly shown a second yellow card. 

Thankfully Josh Keeley dealt with the resultant free kick, and we held firm, despite having to rely on some desperate scrambling defending, to secure a huge statement victory and another very welcome 3 points. It was fantastic to witness in person and another game which I won’t forget for a very long time.

Speaking after the match gaffer Richie Wellens suggested that sometimes in football “at the end of the day you need heart, desire and grit,” his players showed exactly that and have done all the way through this very positive run since the beginning of December.

The tough challenges keep coming thick and fast as we head to Bolton tomorrow and then to league leaders Birmingham on Tuesday, before facing Charlton at home next weekend. If the last two matches have taught me anything though, it is to expect the unexpected with this Orient side!

Earlier in the week we got the news in an official statement from the club that: “a period of exclusivity has been granted to a group to help progress discussions around acquiring a majority shareholding in Leyton Orient Football Club.” While we didn’t get any more detail, it seems that the club’s search for additional investment may be starting to reap some reward.

Given what happened just over a decade ago there is rightly some anxiety around the Orient fanbase and what this might mean for our future direction. While I wasn’t so involved with Orient back in those days, I think we all trust Nigel and the rest of the board sufficiently to hope that this may be very positive news indeed.

We know we need significant additional financial resource to achieve what we hope the team and club as a whole are capable of in terms of a tilt at the Championship, a new stadium etc. and we just have to hope that our very special club grows but remains rooted in the Orient family and the expanding local community. Let’s just hope there’s no sickly tribute songs in the offing about Nigel and/or the potential new investors!

Up the O’s!