Isn’t it curious that different people can watch a football match and draw completely opposite conclusions from what they have seen?

Unfortunately after managing to completely bugger up my back during the week, common sense (not something that usually comes to the fore in football-watching matters for me!) had to intervene, and I surrendered myself to listening to the Wigan match on the Orient audio stream. From what I heard from Dulcet Dave and Matt Hiscock during the game, and from my usual Orient associates after the match, I apparently didn’t miss a great deal.

A cursory glance at the match stats reveals that we dominated possession: 67% to 33%, had a total of 15 shots with 3 on target, and 16 corners yet couldn’t manage to summon up the goal that we so desperately wanted. On the face of it reason for disappointment and frustration at having lost further ground in what looks like an increasingly forlorn bid for the final play-off spot.  Yet, speaking after the match gaffer Richie Wellens said: “I thought our performance was really good, the passing and the movement and some of the play was really good to watch, then it’s about individuals being more explosive, more clever in the final third.”

However from a fan perspective because we didn’t score despite our domination over a poor Wigan side, it feels like a disappointing result, and therefore by association a sub-standard performance.

Contrast that with Tuesday night and a match that despite a very poor start which saw us go a goal down after just 3 minutes, we managed to get a grip in the later part of the first half and equalize though Dilan Markanday’s tenacity 6 minutes before the break. We then took the lead through some excellent football and a smart finish from Charlie Kelman for his first of the evening, only to be pegged back 8 minutes later. We then went on to win it with a sublime Kelman strike with 20 minutes to play.

A better result for sure, but a more convincing performance?  Not according to Richie who felt that: “Compared to Saturday, in terms of our performance it was nowhere near.”  He then went on to say: “You’ll get people that don’t understand football and go ‘we were poor on Saturday’ we weren’t. We were good in everything that we did, and today they’ll all be excited because we won.” Differing perspectives between coach and fan.

A manager/ coach will be looking at the how the team follows the game plan, usually feeling fairly confident that if the players do what they have planned, do it effectively, and with energy and enthusiasm then the performance will be there and the result will come down to taking the chances as they come and avoiding errors that let the opponent in.

For us fans it is much more about the emotional rollercoaster and the escape from the reality of our daily lives. In many ways if we don’t play all that well but somehow sneak a result, that almost gives us more of a buzz than dominating a game and winning comfortably. If we had played poorly and won last Saturday then followed it up with the win at Mansfield we would all most likely be buzzing and hopeful of securing a play-off spot going into tomorrow’s match at Crawley.  

As things stand, even though it is a very long shot, we do still have a mathematical chance of finishing in the top six. To stand any chance whatsoever we would need to win all of our remaining five matches and hope that all of Reading, Bolton, and Huddersfield drop enough points in theirs. You never know of course, but for me a top 10 finish probably feels about right for us this season.

Before signing off for this week I just wanted to spend a bit of time reflecting on Charlie Kelman’s performance throughout the 2024/25 campaign. While he copped a bit of flack from Richie in both of the gaffer’s post-match interviews this week, his goal return speaks for itself. The brace he notched on Tuesday evening were his 16^th and 17^th league goals of the season (his 20^th and 21^st in all competitions), which is impressive enough in itself. However 10 of those have come after Christmas with 6 coming in his last 6 matches. He sits just one goal behind Jay Stansfield of Birmingham and Richard Kone of Wycombe in the golden boot race, both of whom have been able to add penalties to their totals. 

He really seems to be maturing into the bona fide striker that Richie has believed he will become all along. I personally hope he gets his 20 league goals (and hopefully even more!) as that is always the hallmark of a proper striker. The great tragedy of course is that the better he performs, the less chance there will be of bringing him back to Leyton Orient as either a loan or as a permanent signing next season. Still, it has been really fun to watch especially over the last few weeks. Here’s hoping his rich vein of form continues for the rest of the season.

Up the O’s!