I should have known shouldn’t I? The risk of titling a blog post “Still no halting the Orient Express…” (Orient Nerd Weekly Ramblings- Still No Halting the Orient Express and Some Intriguing Investment News) tempts fate to see things go off the rails (pun very much intended!) in the next two matches. Joking aside though, should we be concerned that after such a good run the O’s have now lost two league matches in succession?

The easy/ lazy answer is that our recent good run that allowed us to push up the table at an impressive rate was based on beating teams from the lower half of the table; and now that we are playing teams with play-off/ automatic promotion ambitions we are starting to get found out to an extent. The recent defeat at home to Stockport would very much support this notion, although of course the hard-fought win at Wrexham might suggest otherwise.

As with all things in football, it is probably sensible to consider the last two matches on an individual basis. At Bolton we seemed to struggle to get going, it felt as if the recent hectic schedule, and most specifically the exertions of the previous Tuesday evening in North Wales, had taken a lot out of us and we were lacking a bit in terms of both energy and impetus.

As the first half wore on though we seemed to get more of a grip of the game, and when Charlie Kelman scored for the third consecutive league match five minutes before half-time, it was no more than we deserved.

Quite what went wrong in the second half is difficult to say. Brandon Cooper having to leave the field with what Richie Wellens, almost disdainfully, described as “cramp” certainly didn’t help. That left us with just one recognised central defender and Jayden Sweeney having to try his best to fill in. When Bolton equalized from a counter attack our backline seemed to be caught too high up the pitch, which wasn’t hugely surprising given the necessary changes to personnel.

At the time from my angle behind the goal I felt the penalty award that gave the Trotters the opportunity to win the match was soft. Having watched it back a couple of times, you do wonder what Dom Ball was trying to do? He seemed almost to be caught in two minds and ended up tangling with the Bolton player. Morley converted the spot-kick, and we were consigned to a defeat. As Richie said in his post-match interview. with the run we have been on there was always the possibility that we would have a performance which wasn’t quite up to scratch, and that’s very much how it felt on the way home last Saturday.

A wise football man once said to me that there is no such thing as a “free hit” in football: you should never go into a game accepting that you are probably going to lose and not being bothered by it. Having said that though, going into the game against big-spending Birmingham, who have lost just twice this season, it was always going to be a big ask to get something out of the game.

However, one man, referee Martin Woods, made sure that we didn’t even get the chance to see how we matched up to our more vaunted opponents. His decision to issue a red card to Jack Currie for a challenge that at worst probably merited a yellow, completely and utterly destroyed the game as a spectacle with just 11 minutes on the clock. The most galling thing about the whole situation was that the assistant referee didn’t even raise his flag for a foul despite the incident happening right in front of him.

Being somewhat of a “seasoned” (read: old!) football obsessive I remember the days when referees were allowed to use their common sense. When a tough-looking challenge went in early in the match, the referee would have a word with the player(s) involved and calm the situation down, realising that early dismissals ruin the game for those watching. Sadly those days are long gone, and referees are no longer allowed any sensible flexibility or discretion. Although it has to be said that Mr Woods seemed especially keen to brandish his red card!

Richie Wellens’ immediate reaction to Currie’s dismissal was to take off Charlie Kelman and Dilan Markanday, replacing them with Dom Ball and Jayden Sweeney. Perhaps this was an acceptance that our best bet was to try and hold out for an unlikely seeming draw, as well as recognition that equally (if not more?) important games are looming on the horizon.

Through a combination of tenacity, good fortune, the frame of the goal, and surprisingly wasteful finishing from Birmingham, we managed to keep the match scoreless up to half-time. During the break the replays on the TV screens on the concourse showed how ludicrous a decision the sending off had been.

Our resistance was finally broken 8 minutes into the second half when Taylor Gardner-Hickman seized on a loose ball in the area to prod home. That was the cue for Sonny Perkins, Azeem Abdulai and Randell Williams to replace Ethan Galbraith, Jamie Donley and Dan Agyei with at least one eye on the visit of Charlton to E10 tomorrow afternoon.

Six minutes from time Ethan Laird, who to be fair had been impressive all evening, made it 2-0, and that was that. As Richie said after the match it was a shame our players didn’t get to test themselves against the best team in the division and that the nearly 27,000 crowd didn’t get more of a spectacle to enjoy.

With 13 games still to go for Orient it is now all about how we respond to these two setbacks. Despite the defeats we still sit in the top six, although we do have Charlton and Bolton level on points with us and both having a game in hand. While it would be overexaggerating the matter to say that tomorrow’s match against the Addicks is a must-win game, it does feel like it is an opportunity to get back on track.

After that we head to Rotherham for a third consecutive Tuesday night awayday and another confrontation with our dear old friend Steve Evans. After a promising enough start to the campaign the Millers are winless in their last 5 matches and sit in 15^th place. While we should of course take nothing for granted, that feels like a match where we should be targeting all three points. Here’s hoping!

Up the O’s!

P.S.: Our Kid and I are taking my Dad off on a football adventure to the Basque Country next weekend as an 80^th birthday present, so normal service will be resumed ahead of the Blackpool game in a couple of weeks’ time.