By means of a recap from Part 1 of this Season Review (Orient Nerd Season Review 2024/25 – Part 1: July to November 2024, it’s fair to say that for the first four months of the 2024/25 campaign, the O’s had been somewhat (largely?) underwhelming. They had just however, somehow, managed to squeeze through in the second round of the FA Cup thanks to goalkeeper Josh Keeley’s heroics at the attacking end of the pitch, and a very late Dan Agyei winner. 

December 2024

Following immediately on the heels of our progression in the cup was a home match against a Bristol Rovers side, who despite splashing a bit of cash in the summer, including the recruitment of former O’s Ruel Sotiriou and Shaq Forde, found themselves in the lower half of the table, albeit 6 points ahead of the O’s. If the previous Saturday really was the spark to get ourselves going, then this was a game we needed to win to start to put some points on the board in the league table. In the end it turned out to be a fairly comfortable win thanks to first half goals from: Dan Happe, Ollie O’Neill and then Dan Agyei in added time.

Next was a trip to face Wigan away, not only was this a trip “home” to the North West for yours truly, but for not entirely clear reasons my cousin Ian (the one who turned me into an Arsenal fan all those years ago!) and his partner Liane decided that they were going to join us for the match, to see what an Orient awayday was all about.

It was another 12:30 kick-off that made it very awkward for any Orient fans to get to. To add to the complications the weather was atrocious with heavy rain and violently gusting winds. We were staying in Liverpool and when we heard that the Merseyside derby had been called off in the morning, we genuinely feared that our match was going to follow suite. Assuming of course the trains were running to get us there.

Amazingly we managed to get to Wigan and the match was still going ahead. We met up with Ian and Liane at the ground and introduced them to a fair chunk of the Orient travelling faithful before settling down for kick-off.

After a fairly even opening half hour or so, the O’s took the lead through an unlikely source left back Jayden Sweeney turning the ball home from close range. We remained in control through most of the second half but were unable to make the game completely safe until injury time. Josh Keeley used the benefit of the strong wind to send a long ball forward towards Diallang Jaiyesimi. DJ was able to nick the ball away from a Wigan defender and their keeper and roll it into the empty net, our goalie had now added an assist to his goal the previous weekend.

The following Tuesday evening we were off to the Valley again, this time for the first knockout round of the EFL Trophy. Even though it was absolutely freezing (brass monkey weather as we say oop north!), and the much maligned nature of the competition there was a sizeable Orient following. It seemed very much that given the proximity of Charlton, it was difficult for a number of us to decide not to go.

Right throughout the match we were surprisingly on top: enjoying 56% possession and having a total of 26 shots 10 of which were on target, but we couldn’t find the crucial breakthrough until injury time when Charlie Kelman and Dan Agyei both found the back of the net and sent us through to the next round.

Next up was a disappointing goalless draw at home to Burton which didn’t do a lot to help me celebrate my birthday the following day, before the final game before Christmas sent us to Yorkshire to take on Barnsley. The better half in her infinite “wisdom” had decided well in advance that she didn’t fancy this one with it being so close to the festive period but instead went to watch Clapton CFC with our friend Claire, so it was to be a solo trip for me.

It was another windy and stormy day (what did you expect up north in December Gaz?) which didn’t seem like it was going to be totally conducive to good football. However credit to Richie Wellens and the lads as they used the conditions to their advantage (making great use of the wind to score our first two goals from corners) and we highly unexpectedly ran out 4-0 winners.

While we were all waiting at the station it turned out that Nigel Travis and his son were also there waiting for the same train. Our chairman may have wanted a sightly quieter journey home, but he was engaging, honest in his responses, and made time for all who wanted a chat and a picture.

Boxing Day saw us easily swat aside Crawley 3-0 at home before we hosted and pretty much did the same to Cambridge just 3 days later, although this time it was only 2-0.

January 2025

The first game of 2025 saw us off to Bristol to take on Rovers who were now sitting in 20^th place while we had climbed to 10^th on the back of our evolving unbeaten run. Quite some turnaround in the space of less than a month, mind you given the amount of league fixtures played in this country over the festive period, if you win your matches it is quite easy to climb the table quickly.

For once common sense intervened and we reckoned that if ever a day was ripe for train delays, cancellations and problems, then New Years Day was going to be the day, so we resigned ourselves to watching it on TV instead.

It turned into a fairly exciting affair. Ethan Galbraith’s speculative potshot gave us the early lead, but we were pegged back by a penalty that was generous to say the very least. We then retook the lead before the half-time break thanks to a stunning free kick from Jamie Donley that gave us a glimpse of what was to come from the young Tottenham loanee in the second half of the season (clue: more pieces of sublime skill!).

Rovers pulled a goal back with quarter of an hour to go to make it 3-2 which was as likely as much to do with fatigue after the heavy festive schedule as anything else. Right at the death the home side had an “equalizer” ruled out after the ref spotted, correctly, that O’Donkor had guided the ball in with his hand. In the end it was another positive 3 points away from home.

Just 3 days later we beat a resilient Shrewsbury side, now under the management of Gareth Ainsworth, at home 1-0 thanks to a goal, his third in three matches, from Jamie Donley just past the hour mark. It wasn’t exactly a great spectacle as I recall, but if nothing else it carried on our unbeaten run.

Next, the third round of the FA Cup had given us a home tie against Derby County, perhaps not the glamour tie that we had all been hoping for, but the Rams were now of course a Championship side.

Disappointingly the game, which had been given a simply ridiculous kick-off time of 6pm for the benefit of the no doubt absolutely massive overseas TV market, fell foul of a frozen pitch. While it meant an Orient-free Saturday for the most famous round of the FA Cup, when the draw for the fourth round was made on Sunday evening, it pitted the winner against the Abu Dhabi-backed, winner of the previous four consecutive Premier League titles, recent Champions League winners and reigning World Club Champions, Manchester City. Cup ties don’t get bigger than that!

I remember that when the missus and I set off for the rearranged match it was more out of a sense of hope than expectation. However as we all know, just once in a while this magical game of football throws up one of those occasions that reminds us all why we fell in love with the game in the first place, this was most definitely one of those nights.

Despite some significant fitness issues, the O’s started the match like an absolute train getting at Derby, putting them under pressure and even carving out a couple of early chances. When we took the lead after 20 minutes through Charlie Kelman’s emphatic finish it was exactly what our lightning start deserved.

When Dajaune Brown equalized for the visitors just four minutes later, I have to confess that I had a bit of a sinking feeling, however I should have known that Richie Wellens’ ever evolving Orient side is made of tougher stuff.

From that point forward we stood firm against our higher ranked opponents. We battled, harried, tackled and chased every ball as we more than matched Derby all the way through the ninety minutes and into extra time. Even losing Sean Clare to an inevitable seeming second yellow card in the second period of extra time couldn’t derail us and we headed to penalties. 

Both sides converted their first five spot kicks and then you just knew if either of the keepers was going to decide the game, then Keeley was the one you’d put your money. The kidology that had seen him “checking the notes” on his water bottle through the first five showed once again the confidence the young shot-stopper has.

Callum Elder’s penalty was at a nice enough height but still needed saving and it was no surprise when Keeley did just that, meaning that when Zech Obiero converted his penalty we had pulled off the upset! Now we could all look forward to a glamour tie against Manchester City.

After all the drama and excitement of knocking Derby County out of the FA Cup, just four days later we were off on our travels again this time to face Peterborough in another lunchtime kick-off. Given the hard fought 130 minutes and penalties against Derby the previous Tuesday evening, there were bound to be some very tired legs amongst the Orient squad. While we battled hard throughout the match, we understandably were lacking that spark in attack and the game trundled towards an inevitable seeming goalless outcome.

To be fair in the grand scheme of things it was a decent enough point, one most O’s fans would have taken before the match. There was some encouragement in the way that we looked to play our football, but it was a niggly stop-start game. Debutant loanee winger Dilan Markanday looked pretty lively and was a definite plus.

Next our involvement in the EFL Trophy was to come to an end as we lost 1-0 at home to Stevenage, in what could at best be described as a game with little to remember it for. Although any slight sense of disappointment the result might have brought was tempered by the fact that we would have had to face Birmingham in the quarter final in the week leading up to the big cup tie against Man City.

We rounded out January with a comfortable 2-0 home win over a resurgent Reading thanks to a first goal for the club by Dilan Markanday and another from Charlie Kelman, and then in a game that we will live long in the memory we travelled to Devon to take on Exeter City. We played some thrilling and sublime football and ran out 6-2 victors thanks in no small part to a hat-trick from recent signing Azeem Abdulai.

We ended January nestled in the final play-off spot and you could almost feel the Orient fanbase starting to believe what might just be possible this season.   

February 2025 (Part 1)

February was quite some month, although it started in disappointing fashion with a defeat at home to Stockport and the end of our long unbeaten run in the league that stretched all the way back to the beginning of December. As organised and difficult to break down as Dave Challinor’s men were, it also felt as if the O’s players, quite understandably, had an eye on the following week and the huge cup tie against the reigning Premier League champions and beaten finalists from the previous season, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

Despite it being a very early start thanks to the match being selected to be shown live on the BBC, you could literally feel the tension and excitement in the air as soon as we exited Leyton tube station. The slate grey skies adding both a surreal feeling and ramping up the anticipation. 

The scene in Oliver Road outside the Supporters Club was like nothing I have ever seen before at our famous old ground. There were people everywhere waiting to catch a glimpse of City’s famed manager and his multimillion pound squad of global megastars. 

Going into the match there was a feeling of trepidation that we would simply be rolled over by a team with far greater financial resources and quality. However right from the kick-off it became clear that that wasn’t going to be the case, instead the Orient players, no longer cowed by the “little Leyton Orient” tag stood toe to toe with their much more vaunted opponents. There was a steeliness about us that seemed to unsettle the City players, I guess this was something they weren’t used to in the Premier and Champions Leagues where the match officials tend to be more protective.

Then in the 16^th minute came the moment that still gives me goosebumps writing about it now months later. Sonny Perkins outmuscled (not a phrase I ever thought I would be writing this season!) new City midfield “enforcer” Nico Gonazalez and the ball broke to Jamie Donley.

We had already seen that the on-loan Tottenham midfielder has a tendency towards the sublime, but what he did next almost defied belief. Instead of controlling the ball and looking to keep possession, Donley sized up a shot from just inside the City half, executed it perfectly squeezing his lobbed effort between the desperate upstretched hand of Ortega and the crossbar, the ball eventually hitting the back of the City keeper and rolling into the net. It was both a stunning and audacious piece of skill and sparked sheer unadulterated pandemonium around Brisbane Road. The feeling that I had in those few moments after the goal will be something that I will never ever forget.

After that there was always the worry that City would come back at us, but we just about held on until half-time, when we could pause and regather ourselves and our frayed nerves. Just before the restart, realising that he needed to change something, Guardiola replaced both his centre backs, bringing on John Stones and Abdukodir Khusanov in place of Vitor Reis and Rúben Dias. I took it as a sign that he was more than concerned about the problems we were causing his rearguard.

Two minutes later City equalized, rather fortuitously it has to be said, when Rico Lewis’ effort ricocheted off Khusanov and into the net. Even then all around Brisbane Road still believed.

In the end Guardiola had to turn to two of his very big guns, introducing Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden with just over quarter of an hour to go. It was the former that made the difference ghosting onto a clever through-ball from Jack Grealish and flicking the ball beyond Keeley. Strangely even though I knew that was the end of the dream, I didn’t feel downhearted in the slightest, just proud of our players and the run they had been on.

After the match none of the Brisbane Road faithful wanted to go home, instead we partied long into the afternoon and early evening as if we had pulled off the mother of all upsets. It wasn’t just about the performance, or the cup run, it was about how far this incredibly special football club has come, and where we might be headed in the future.

 To be continued…

Up the O’s!