After our late surge to the play-offs, knocking out Stockport, and then being cruelly denied at Wembley (again!), it is probably fair to say that the majority of the Orient fanbase went into 2025/ 26 with a degree of optimism despite the significant number of first team departures over the summer and the need to bring in a raft of new signings. Sadly, it was to turn into a season that drastically underwhelmed and one in which we very nearly exited the division in the wrong direction, only being saved on the final day as much thanks to Bradford’s efforts as our own. 

July 2025

After injuring my back at the tail end of last season which kept me out of most of the run-in bar Wembley, thankfully I had recovered relatively well over the summer and was desperate to get going on another Orient adventure. The first pre-season friendly was at Brentwood, a venue I know well as the Phoenix FM studio (home of the Orient Hour) is on the same site. With so many of the previous season’s squad having departed for pastures new there was a very mix, match and make-do feel to the side. Still, Orient ran out comfortable 5-0 winners and I for one was just glad to be back into my familiar routine. 

The following week the squad headed off to Spain and lost 1-0 to the Champions League-qualified Pafos. On their return there was a fixture at Welling United that saw us win comfortably 10-0, before the farcical situation at Barnet where the game was rained off while we were waiting in the bar and then played on an adjacent training pitch with an artificial surface when we had all gone home (what was that about typical Orient?). Maybe we should have gone to Ebbsfleet instead where the other half of the split squad had triumphed 4-1!

Pre-season concluded with a 3-1 victory over Tottenham U21s in the traditional Justin Edinburgh Cup fixture, followed by a creditable 1-1 draw with Championship Watford featuring former O Hector Kyprianou, and then a 3-1 win at Waltham Abbey. 

August 2025

The season proper got underway at the same venue that we had concluded the previous league campaign: Huddersfield. However, the result was to turn out very different this time around with Orient going behind in the 6^th minute and never recovering, eventually losing 3-0. 

For the first home game of the season, we hosted Wigan Athletic. An own goal from the Latics’ Steven Sessegnon and a 90^thminute strike by the returning Josh Koroma gave us our first 3 points of the campaign. The following Tuesday we were eliminated from the EFL Cup in the first round (what else is new?) this time losing by a single goal at home to Wycombe. 

As a result of having to rearrange our holiday planned for earlier in the year, Mrs Orient Nerd and I were in the States on a baseball tour for the next run of games which saw us: coming back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with familiar opposition from the previous season, Stockport, thanks to Aaron Connolly’s first goal for the club and an added time equalizer by Ollie O’Neill. I think by that stage the Hatters may well have been sick of the sight of us! 

After that was a positive seeming 1-0 victory at Plymouth, before a completely unexpected 4-1 capitulation at Mansfield. Perhaps that early inconsistency should have given us a hint of what was to come for the season ahead? We finished the month with a home defeat by Northampton. 

September 2025

We got our EFL Trophy campaign off to a winning start with a 3-1 win at Peterborough which saw three players score their first goals for the club: Charlie Wellens with a stunning free kick and then goals from Manchester United loanee Jack Moorthoue and new signing Michael Craig. Earlier in the match Azeem Abdulai was rightly shown a red card for a ridiculously high challenge. 

Due to family commitments, we couldn’t make the dramatic game at Port Vale although we did see the first half hour on TV and then followed the rest of the match via updates on my phone. I guess the fact that we needed an injury time winner from Charlie Wellens to finally overcome a team that looked destined for relegation right from the beginning of the season, tells you all you need to about how the newly assembled squad was struggling to gel and find understanding. On a positive note, new striker Dom Ballard notched his first goal for the club, and Aaron Connolly also got on the scoresheet again. 

Next up it was Bolton at home, when Jack Simpson (yes, you read that right, Jack Simpson!) gave us the lead with just over 20 minutes to go, the Brisbane Road crowd could be forgiven for thinking our second home win of the season was in the bag. However, as had happened so many times in previous seasons, the visitors were to grab a very late equalizer, this time through one of the standout performers in the division throughout the season: Amario Cozier-Duberry. I remember at the time feeling absolutely gutted after the match at the potential momentum we had just lost. 

Whether being pegged back to a draw so late in the game had an impact on the team or not is difficult to say, but it sparked a run of three consecutive league defeats starting with a 2-1 loss at Reading in which we really struggled to get going. Finding ourselves 1-0 down at the break, when Idris El Mizouni levelled the scores 3 minutes into the second half there was a brief flurry of hope in the away end. Only for it to be snuffed out again by Liam Fraser’s winner for the Royals with 11 minutes left to play. 

Next it was a disappointing home defeat by familiar foes Stevenage. Aaron Connolly gave us the lead midway through the first half only for Harvey White to equalize 2 minutes later. Stevenage took control of the match with 2 goals in the opening quarter of an hour of the second period. Dom Ballard pulled one back with just over 20 minutes to go but we couldn’t find that all important third and slumped to another defeat, our fifth of the league campaign already.  

October 2025

October got underway with the much-anticipated awayday trip to Cardiff. While I doubt too many of the travelling Orient faithful held out much hope going into it, the match itself, despite being played out in gale force winds, turned out to be something of a cracker, although carried a nasty sting in the tail for Orient once again. Callum Robinson gave the home side the lead on 20 minutes only for Aaron Connolly to equalize 9 minutes later. It was 1-1 at the break but then the game broke completely open in the second half. 

First, Dyan Lawlor restored Cardiff’s lead 7 minutes in after some weak goalkeeping by Tommy Simkin, but Idris El Mizouni levelled the scores again a couple of minutes later. When Dom Ballard gave us the lead for the first time in the match just past the hour mark with a brilliant curling effort, there was a real feeling in the away end that we might just see this out for a statement victory. Those dreams were crushed by two goals in quick succession: first Yousef Salech equalized with a near post header, then Robinson grabbed his second and broke Orient hearts calmly finishing off a sweeping attack. While we ultimately didn’t get anything out of the match, it did provide some grounds to believe that things might be starting to click within the squad and that we could potentially compete with the best teams in the division. 

The following Tuesday evening a heavily rotated side did just about enough to beat Crawley 2-1 at home in the EFL Trophy. In the next game, we made easy work of Doncaster at Brisbane Road thanks in no small part to Dom Ballard’s first hattrick of the season and another goal from strike partner Aaron Connolly. After the positive display, albeit in a loss, in South Wales it really was beginning to feel that we might be turning a corner and to start climbing the table, just as we had done during the previous autumn and winter. 

A 1-0 defeat at Rotherham the following week after a thoroughly disappointing performance could have poured cold water on those positive feelings, but we bounced back with a completely unexpected win over future champions Lincoln City in E10. The solitary goal of the match coming from Idris El Mizouni who seemed to be growing in influence on a week-by-week basis. We rounded out the month with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Aston Villa U21s in the EFL Trophy.

Even though it had been something of a patchy start to the league season in terms of both form and results we ended October in 14^th place in the table with 17 points from our 14 matches up to that point. With a trip to non-league Tamworth in the FA Cup up next, there was every belief that another cup run might be on the cards as well. 

To be continued…

Up the O’s!