For the opening 45 minutes last Saturday at home to Blackpool, things seemed to be going largely to plan for Orient. While it hadn’t been a first half of too many chances, Aaron Connolly’s stinging low strike midway through, (his 7th league goal of the campaign), had given us the lead at half-time. However right from the start of the second period things started to go awry.
Having taken a knock to the head towards the end of the first half, Tyreeq Bakinson had to be replaced by Sean Clare. Then just moments later, finding himself under pressure from a weak ball out from Omar Beckles, Tayo Adaramola brought down a Blackpool player and was, rightly, shown a second yellow card.
Being reduced to 10 men so early meant that the second half became all about the O’s trying to hold onto their slender advantage. It was a challenge that the players nearly managed to fulfil, only to be cruelly denied in added time when Ashley Fletcher poked home from close range. At the time, as biased as I admittedly am, I was adamant that Fletcher was offside, having watched the replays since though it is hard to be 100% certain either way. There was also a case for a foul on Dan Happe in the lead up to the goal but that wasn’t given either.
In the end, despite the extenuating circumstances, being pegged back and having to settle for a draw, albeit a hard-earned one, was tough to take but if we can take anything from the match it was the attitude and spirit the players showed. Maybe if Alfie Lloyd had taken that late shot on himself, or if he had produced a crisper pass for Charlie Wellens, or indeed if Wellens’ shot had a bit more conviction, we would be toasting an impressively resilient victory. However as we know football is a game decided by small margins, and sadly it wasn’t meant to be.
In further tough news to take Idris El Mizouni was stretchered off late on after seemingly crashing into the advertising boards in front of the South Stand. In many ways it kind of summed up the second period from an Orient perspective.
Speaking after the match a clearly angry Richie Wellens railed against recent refereeing performances suggesting that: “Honestly I just cannot believe how bad the refereeing performances are…the standard of refereeing is so poor it’s untrue.” Obviously it’s frustrating to drop 2 points but can we truly blame referee Samuel Allison for this one?
Admittedly the 50/50 calls in the second half could be construed to have favoured the visitors, but it is difficult to suggest that Adaramola’s dismissal was anyone’s fault but our own. I completely get the frustration of conceding an equalizer so late, but in many ways fortune (good or bad) is part of the game. Do we really want VAR to dissect decisions such as the equalizing goal in minute detail as it does at the highest level?
The result kept us in 16th place in the table, and somewhat surprisingly while we are only 5 points above the dreaded drop zone, we are also only 6 points behind Bolton in 6th place and the final play-off spot.
Probably the best thing that can be said about the division so far this season is that it is tight. Over the last 10 matches only Bolton have won more than half of their games, and a couple of good results can boost you right up the table while a run of bad ones can drop you right down. Perhaps most concerning from an Orient perspective is that in the last 10 games we have been the very definition of inconsistent with 3 wins 2 draws and 5 defeats which places us 22nd in the form table.
As we seem to say on a weekly basis, the important thing is to start to string some results together and for us to start climbing up the league. Although establishing that consistency is made harder by the fact that we continue to lose key personnel, with Adaramola, Bakinson and El Miz joining those already absent from the trip to Burton tomorrow afternoon.
On the subject of tomorrow’s match, where usually the Brewers seem to lurk in the relegation spots until they somehow dramatically save themselves from the drop at the end of the season, this term they seem to have found some form earlier on and are 1 point and 2 places ahead of us in the table. As we all know our form away from home has been poor this season. The last time we won on the road in the league was that last gasp victory at Port Vale at the beginning of September. While it certainly won’t be easy, it really does feel that this is a game in which we need to avoid defeat to have any hope of establishing the consistency and momentum that we all hope is coming from this team.
Up the O’s!
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