In a season of too many lunchtime kick-offs and several matches rearranged due to international breaks, often at ridiculously short notice, last night we got our first taste of Thursday night football. Quite what the logic behind this decision is, is anyone’s guess? Especially given the fact that our scheduled game last Saturday was called off due to international call-ups, one of whom played on Tuesday evening in Sweden, and the other most likely also would have featured if he hadn’t picked up an injury while away.

I really can’t imagine that there was a significant TV audience champing at the bit to tune into Orient taking on Stevenage. Even if there was, wouldn’t Friday evening or Saturday lunchtime have held greater appeal from a TV perspective, as annoying as either option would have been for those of us that actually go to the matches?  As I know from my previous football-watching life and the Europa League, Thursday evenings just feel wrong for football.

The inconvenient scheduling undoubtedly affected the attendance, which although it was reported as 7,305 was to my eyes no more than 4,500 to 5,000 at the very most, if we are being overly generous. It doesn’t take extensive powers of deduction to realise the club were anticipating a resultant drop in revenue given the promotional offers on hospitality and some food and drink. Although sadly for my mate Chris and me this didn’t extend to the pie and mash or the burgers!

With four more seasons of the Sky TV deal still to run, frustratingly I think we can expect more and more of this disruption and lack of consideration for the match-going fans. He who pays the piper (albeit rather poorly, it has to be said!) calls the tune, and all that!

Onto matters on the pitch and after a run of five straight losses, only halted by a lucky / hard-fought (please delete according to your own feeling!) win at Blackpool, it really felt that this was a game that Orient needed to win to keep alive any hope of a push for the play-off places.

As it was to turn out it was another attritional game (did you really expect anything else given the opposition Gaz?), in which we scored with our only shot on target when Charlie Kelman sharply headed home his 15^th league goal of the season from Sean Claire’s speculative ball into the area. From there it was a battle all the way to the final whistle, but perhaps we can take further comfort from the tenacity and grit we showed in grinding out the victory for the second match in a row.

Speaking after the match gaffer Richie Wellens summed it up perfectly suggesting: “some days it’s about flowing football and your attackers and your wingers and you’re enjoying the game, sometimes it’s about your defenders putting their bodies on the line and keeping a clean sheet.” He also then went on to say, in true Richie style: “Football’s mad! We’ve played our poorest the last two games, given the most chances away, and we’ve got six points.”

On a plus point it was great to see Ollie O’Neill get some minutes after the injury that has ruled him out since the Shrewsbury home game in early January. However on the downside fitness wise both Jordan Brown and Charlie Kelman had to be replaced due to injury. Apparently Brown has a cut on his foot and Kelman had a tight hamstring so we can only hope that neither is too serious, as both are key players that we really don’t want to be missing for the remainder of the run-in.  

Next week it is back into a more usual routine with a trip to Burton on Tuesday evening before the visit of Wigan to Brisbane Road next Saturday. Given that we did what we needed to do last night, and Burton’s position in the table, we surely have to be targeting another 3 points from that one, hopefully with a better performance this time as well. We will focus more on the Wigan match in next week’s blog.

I am sure you will have already seen it, but in an article released by the Guardian newspaper last night (US-based consortium close to ambitious £18m takeover of Leyton Orient | Leyton Orient | The Guardian), there has been a bit more detail outlined about the potential investors with whom we have entered into a period of exclusive negotiations. The key points are as follows:

> The talks involve the proposed purchase of 70% of the club for a reported £18 million.

> The buying group is understood to be led by David Gandler (a former Warner Bros executive and the founder and chief executive of fuboTV, a streaming platform that broadcasts European football in the US, Canada and Spain, who sold his 17% stake in Paris FC last October).

> The consortium also reportedly involves Kit Hawkins (whose investments include a stake in the TMRW Golf League co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and a music management company) and Neil Leibman (an executive at the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball franchise).

> As part of the proposed deal Nigel Travis would retain a significant stake and remain as Chairman.

> The proposal also potentially incudes a new stadium and training ground, with the possibility of having an American football franchise playing in the European League of Football based at the new stadium.

Obviously it is still very early days but this news, combined with the progress we have been making on the pitch over the past few seasons suggest that there are potentially very interesting and exciting times ahead. For now though we need to focus on the next game and getting that win at Burton!

Up the O’s!