Last Saturday’s defeat at home to Barnsley really summed up Orient’s 2025/26 season. Just when we needed to kick on after a hard-fought win at Northampton seven days previously, instead we fell to our third consecutive home defeat. While the first half was fairly evenly matched, the second half was once again lacking in any fight or character from the majority of our players. If we are being brutally honest the Tykes really didn’t have to do a lot to pick up the three points. 

It has now got to the stage where I simply do not know what to write any more. We all know that the summer recruitment left some glaring gaps in the squad, and that some of those coming in haven’t got anywhere near reaching the standards of their predecessors, but surely we should expect more than what we have got out of this squad?

Something just doesn’t seem right this season. The squad doesn’t seem to have clicked at all and is drastically underperforming against the expectations of the manager, board and the fanbase. So what the hell is going wrong? Is Richie Wellens not getting his messages through to the players? Are the players not listening? Or are they not capable of implementing what the gaffer is demanding of them?

While we can never tell completely looking in from the outside, Saturday’s “performance” (sic!) didn’t in any way scream of a committed, motivated squad, all pulling in the same direction, desperate to put things right on the pitch and dig themselves out of the mess that they have got themselves in. Quite the opposite in fact!  

Yet how many times have we reached similar conclusions throughout this season? If the performances and attitude are not up to scratch, why not? More importantly, what is being done on the training ground and behind the scenes to stop this from continuing to happen? Nothing that has proven especially effective, or so it would appear from the outside. It really is time that the players and the management took a long hard look at themselves, because what they are serving up on a game by game basis simply isn’t good enough and we are starting to run out of games.

After the defeat at home to Plymouth, Richie suggested that we needed 7 more wins to be safe in the division. We got 1 of those at Northampton, but can anyone look at our remaining fixtures and see where those wins are going to come from? Without wanting to depress you even further, here are the games we have left and the current position in the table of the teams we are due to face:

• Bradford City (4^th) Away 
• Stevenage (9^th) Away
• Peterborough (11^th) Home
• AFC Wimbledon (14^th) Away
• Wycombe Wanderers (6^th) Home
• Exeter City (15^th) Away
• Wigan Athletic (19^th) Away
• Huddersfield Town (7^th) Home
• Lincoln City (2^nd) Away
• Mansfield Town (16^th) Home
• Rotherham United (22nd) Home
• Blackpool (20^th) Away
• Burton Albion (17^th) Home

Of the remaining 13 matches 6 are at home and 7 away, with only Rotherham currently below us in the league table, can you honestly say that you can see us winning half of those games? Remember this is a team that has won just 10 out of 33 games and hasn’t managed back-to-back wins all season.

While no one at the club is saying it, there is a very realistic possibility that we will be playing our football in League 2 next season. While relegation would in no way compare to the traumas the club and fanbase have gone through in recent memory, it could potentially be disastrous for the owner’s and board’s ambitions. Ever since Nigel Travis, Kent Teague and co rescued the club it has been on a largely upward trajectory. To drop down a division, even temporarily, would feel very much like a backward step. If the worst were to happen and we then weren’t able to bounce back straight away, what would that mean for the grand plans for a brand new 20,000 – 30,000 seat stadium, sorry campus?

As disappointing as this season has undoubtedly been, all hope is not lost just yet. There is still the chance that the squad will pull itself away from danger, but the only way to do that is through effort and commitment from all involved, us fans most definitely included. Decent performances and results in our next two matches, as unlikely as that might seem at the moment, would give us all the lift that we need. Two more depressing displays and uninspiring defeats though and the negative noise around the club will only heighten. 

 Up the O’s!