3-0-2-0-4-1-2-1-2-3

The above isn’t some kind of clever mathematical code, instead it is the goals conceded by Orient in their 10 league matches so far. To put it another way, that is 18 league goals conceded (at a rate of 1.8 goals against per match) and ranks as the equal worst record in the division alongside Peterborough and Plymouth. Neither of whom have cemented a reputation for their solid defences so far this term.

Last Saturday’s defeat by Stevenage very much encapsulated the O’s season so far. We worked hard to find the initial breakthrough: Aaron Connolly turning home Charlie Wellens’ low cross, only to be pegged back by an almost immediate equalizer from Harvey White.

We then went 1-3 down thanks to…and stop me if you’ve heard this one before(!)…two goals from corners in the space of 7 minutes at the start of the second half. Even though Dom Ballard pulled one back with just over 20 minutes to go, we had simply left ourselves too much to do by that stage.

All through the start of this campaign we have focused a lot on the number of new players we have by necessity brought in, and the fact that the squad needs time to gel and develop, but this felt very much like a familiar failing and something that we really should have gotten to grips with by now. Stevenage’s third goal was particularly galling, largely because it isn’t as if we don’t know what Carl Piergianni is all about and how much of a threat he can be from set pieces.

According to WhoScored.com: 6 (or a third!) of the goals we have conceded have come from set pieces, with a further one being a successful penalty. In the past defensive solidity has been the foundation on which our success had been built. In 2023/24 we conceded a total of 55 goals (1.2 goals conceded per game) and in 2024/25 it was 48 (just over 1 goal conceded per game), so our defence has clearly become more porous. So where is it going wrong?

Speaking after the game, a disappointed Richie Wellens suggested that we are a “naïve team” mainly focusing on the fact that we let in the equalizer almost as soon as we had taken the lead and then conceded two set piece goals despite knowing what to expect from Stevenage and presumably having worked on defending our own box in the lead up to the match.

The regular chopping and changing of our back four as a result of injury obviously hasn’t helped, but if we are being brutally honest this isn’t just something that has reared its head this season. We need only think back to the home league defeat against Charlton last season, amongst (many?) other instances of inauspicious set-piece defending for evidence of that. 

In the modern game, attention to every minute detail is everything, and increasingly more and more focus is being given to set pieces both from an attacking and defending perspective, it feels as if we have been found wanting. Perhaps we can stop short of bringing in a “specialist” set-piece coach (🤣🤣🤣) but it is an area that we not only need to address, but we need to do so quickly.

Pretty much every week this season I have been suggesting that it will come good at some point and that the team would start to put together a run of positive results and build some momentum. Letting goals in, and cheaply, is proving to be a real Achilles heel for us, and in many ways is undoing the good work we are putting in to try to develop our attacking cohesion. An away trip to Cardiff City may not seem like the ideal way for us to break out of the doldrums in which we currently find ourselves having failed to win in 5 of our last 6 matches, but then again wouldn’t it just be typical of Orient to go there, put in a real performance and come away with a win? Here’s hoping!

With last Saturday’s match against Stevenage kicking off at 12:30 (seriously, who tunes in to watch the games between us given how dire spectacles the last few have been?) meant that it provided the club and the women’s team with the ideal opportunity to stage a double-header at Brisbane Road.

There are clearly highly ambitious plans for the women’s team under the McCaffery Football Investment Group (for more on that read Leyton Laureate’s recent pieces in the Orientear and online and see recent matchday programmes), and staging games immediately after the men’s team play to try to draw in new spectators seems a sensible approach. However the team itself seems too strong for the division in which they currently find themselves, 13-0, 14-0, 5-1 and 14-0 wins in their last four matches attest to that!

It is of course a tricky balance to strike between progression up the league tiers and providing entertaining matches. As supporters of the club (and not just the men’s first team) the onus is upon us to support the women’s team on their ongoing journey. Luton Town’s Development squad, the opposition on Saturday, may not have been up to much, but it really feels as if our women’s team is going places in a hurry.  

Up the O’s!