Part 1 – Orient Nerd Season Review 2025/26 – Part 1: July to October 2025
In a similar vein to the previous season, it is fair to say that Orient’s 2025/26 had gotten off to something of a mixed start. We had won 5, drawn 2 and lost 7 of our opening 14 league fixtures and been knocked out of the League Cup at the first time of asking. It came as scant consolation for most O’s fans that we had at least progressed through the group phase of the Vertu Trophy.
November 2025
The trip to Tamworth in the first round of the FA Cup brought back memories of 12 months previously when squeezing past Borehamwood on penalties in the first round, and then somehow finding a way to sneak past Oldham, thanks in no part to goalkeeper Josh Keeley’s added time equalizer and then a winner from Dan Agyei in injury time at the end of extra time, seemed to kickstart our faltering season. It could only be hoped that we could go on a similar unbeaten run again and surge up the table spurred on by cup success.
I had a worried feeling about this game almost from when the draw was made. Maybe it was the fact Maldon & Tiptree amongst other Orient FA Cup disasters was still in my mind, or maybe it was remembering how close Tamworth had come to knocking out Spurs in last season’s third round on TV; but I just wanted us to get this out of the way and move on to the next round.
Sadly, the fact that the broadcasters, in their infinite wisdom, chose to screen this in the Monday evening slot ruled yours truly out of a trip to a new non-league ground. Even hopeless football obsessives must sometimes be mindful of holiday allocations from work. So, it was an evening in front of the TV in the Orient Nerd household.
The game was painful to watch with our National League opponents frustrating us on their plastic pitch. Eventually we just about secured our progression to the next round thanks to an own goal when Kennedy Digie headed Sonny Perkins’ cross into his own net with 10 minutes remaining. In many ways that seemed a perfectly apt ending to a dull encounter. Our reward for getting past Tamworth was another away trip, this time to face our old friends from the National League and League 2, Salford City.
Having just about done what we needed to in the cup we returned to league action with a trip to Adams Park for a lunchtime encounter with Wycombe Wanderers. If we were looking to show improved form after a disappointing display at Tamworth, then we were to be left disappointed as the match was almost over as a contest after just half an hour.
Fred Onyedinma, who was to give Tom James the runaround all afternoon on their right flank, put the Chairboys in the lead after just 3 minutes, latching onto a clipped ball over the top and firing past Killian Cahill while our backline just stood and watched. Aaron Connolly calmly levelled the score from the spot not much later after Dom Ballard was wrestled to the ground by Wycombe keeper Will Norris. However, parity wasn’t to last long as Onyedinma restored the home side’s lead 5 minutes later after outpacing James.
We were lucky not to be reduced to 10 men when Killan Cahill came racing out of his area and felled Onyedinma, thankfully the ref judged a yellow card sufficient punishment. However just before the half hour mark Dan Casey made it 3-1, getting onto a ball into the area from a free kick that we just didn’t deal with. Even then with an hour still to play, it felt like a long way back for the O’s. Sam Bell rounded off the scoring and confirmed our inevitable fate with quarter of an hour to go, following in to finish off after Cahill had parried a shot. After some encouraging results in the league just a few weeks previously this one felt very much like a step backwards again.
Next up were two home games in quick succession, the first against Exeter City. After going a goal down to a Jayden Wareham penalty just before half-time we somehow rescued ourselves with two late goals. First Idris El Mizouni somewhat fortunately turned a rebound home with a delicate part of his anatomy after his initial effort had been saved. Then with less than 10 minutes to go Tyreeq Bakinson was on hand to slot home after Jack Simpson had headed a high ball back across goal. It was far from being a convincing win but at this stage it was all about trying to get the points on the board and to build some momentum.
The game against Blackpool the following week was to turn into another frustrating result. Aaron Connolly gave us the lead midway through the first half but for the rest of the match we really struggled to build on that. It didn’t help that rookie loanee Tayo Adaramloa was sent off as the result of a foolish second yellow card just 2 minutes into the second half.
There was an ominous seeming moment 2 minutes from the end when Idris El Mizouni collided with the advertising hoardings at the South Stand end and had to be replaced by Josh Koroma. While we didn’t realise it at the time, it would be quite some time until we would see the Tunisian midfield driving force back in the line-up. In the fourth minute of added time Ashley Fletcher bundled the ball home from close range to nick a point for the Seasiders.
The final game of November saw us going to the Pirelli Stadium, the home of Burton Albion. Just for once in this up and down season, it was really nice to win comfortably. Aaron Connolly gave us the lead 12 minutes in driving in from the left flank and firing through the keeper’s legs. 13 minutes later his strike partner, Dom Ballard, doubled our lead flicking home Connolly’s drilled cross with his head. 2-0 at half-time now it was about seeing the victory out.
The much-maligned Azeem Abdullai made it 3-0 just past the hour mark with a rasping drive from 25 yards before Charlie Wellens added a fourth with 15 minutes to go. Right at the end there was a brief cameo that warmed the hearts of every single Orient fan when Theo Archibald took to the field after two full years on the sideline. I have to admit it brought a tear to my eye as I am sure it did for many others.
December 2025
December get underway with two cup matches in quick succession, neither of which was to prove especially encouraging for O’s fans. First up was a Tuesday evening match-up with Plymouth in the EFL Trophy. We went down 1-0 to a goal in added time in a game where literally very little memorable happened. I get that most Orient fans wouldn’t have lost a lot of sleep over our exit from the unpopular competition, but a cup run is a cup run at the end of the day.
If Plymouth was to prove somewhat disappointing, the trip to Salford three days later (yep! a Friday fixture to appease the TV masses!) was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. It started with Killian Cahill letting a tame effort squeeze between his legs midway through the first half.
Then in the second period instead of taking the game to Salford and exerting ourselves as the team from a higher division, we tamely surrendered and ended up losing 4-0! Talk about cup disasters! The news got even worse in the aftermath of the game when it was announced that Aaron Connolly needed to undergo surgery on a thigh problem. Just when we were looking to push up the table, two of our best players were injured and would be missing for quite some time.
The following Tuesday we were back in league action at Brisbane Road with the visit of newly relegated Luton Town. When Josh Koroma went down injured and had to be replaced just over quarter of an hour in, there was a huge cheer when the crowd realised that Theo Archibald was the man coming on. Five minutes after half-time we got another emotional moment when Dom Ballard broke through on goal but instead of having a shot himself, squared it to Theo who slotted it home, what a way to announce your return after so long out.
Sadly, we were once again to succumb to another injury time goal conceded, this time, and stop me if you have heard this one before(!), Gideon Kodua heading home a corner in the sixth added minute. Yet again it felt like a real suckerpunch and kind of summed our performances up thus far.
Next, we were off on a pre-Christmas awayday to Barnsley. At roughly the same time the previous season we had won 4-0 at Oakwell in very windy conditions, however this wasn’t going to turn out to be anywhere near as straightforward.
Reyes Cleary, who was the standout performer throughout the match, gave the home side the lead in the opening 10 minutes. We drew level on the half hour mark when a mix up in the penalty area from the home side led to Ollie O’Neill being felled by goalkeeper Murphy Cooper, and Dom Ballard duly converted the spot-kick. Just minutes later O’Neill made it 2-1 but frankly we didn’t even deserve to be level at the break let alone in the lead.
Neither team really controlled the second half in any meaningful way but then Barnsley sealed all 3 points with a pair of goals in the last quarter of an hour. The first from Jon Russell came from us not being able to deal with a free kick into the box (surprise, surprise!), the second was set up by Cleary for Davis Keillor-Dunn after Tom James inexplicably didn’t clear a ball from the right back area. It was yet another disappointment in what was rapidly turning into an up and down season.
The following week we somehow pulled off an unexpected 2-1 home win against newly promoted but very much high-flying Bradford, thanks to a brace of goals from Dom Ballard- one late in the first half, the second midway through the second period, after the visitors had taken the lead. I think at this stage we were all starting to realise just what a precocious striking talent we had on our hands in Ballard.
The next run of games in quick succession over the festive period was nothing short of disastrous from an Orient perspective. It started with a 1-0 defeat at a struggling Peterborough on Boxing Day thanks to another stoppage time goal, this one from Declan Frith. After that we were destroyed 3-0 at Kenilworth Road in a match that the Orient faithful had all been looking forward to ever since the fixtures were released. In truth we simply didn’t compete on the day.
January 2026
2026 got underway with the visit of Wimbledon to E10 on New Years Day, surely this would be the chance to get ourselves back on track after two very disappointing defeats? Nope! Instead, we lost 3-1 and looked very much like a team struggling for confidence let alone any semblance of form. In many ways at the time, it was probably a blessing in disguise that the match at Stevenage on Sunday 4th of January was postponed, as a defeat to that mob from Hertfordshire might have tipped some of the O’s faithful fully over the edge.
Instead, our next fixture was against one of the teams looking likely for automatic promotion, Cardiff City. Against all expectation we took the lead through Dom Ballard in the 12th minute only to then be pegged back by an equalizer from Yousef Salech on the half hour mark. It remained level right until the end, however a draw against one of the top teams felt like a creditable result. We followed that up with a 3-1 win over Reading in which Ballard netted his second hat trick of the season but could have genuinely had 5 or 6 save for a couple of contentious refereeing decisions and the width of a post. That brought the young striker up to 15 league goals, a highly impressive return especially given he was playing in a struggling team.
Next came a trio of results that were highly disappointing but completely in keeping with our season to date. The first of these was a trip to Greater Manchester to take on Bolton. In another cruel result to take we were beaten by another injury time goal, this one a penalty after a silly handball from Azeem Abdullai. Prior to that Theo had equalized Thierry Gale’s opener early in the second half.
The following Tuesday we were away at Doncaster which no one who made the trip will forget in a hurry. In a season of disappointing performances this may have been the absolute worst of the lot. Rovers won 3-0 without ever having to really do very much at all.
Next up was a game in which one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed in all my years watching football happened. New goalkeeper signing Dan Bachman somehow managed to break his ankle during the warm-up and would not only miss this game but wouldn’t make an appearance for Orient at all. We then went on to lose to struggling Port Vale thanks to yet another headed goal from a corner.
That saw us finish January in 18th spot in the table with 32 points, just a point above the relegation places. While we had earned some creditable results against some of the better sides, our consistent inconsistency, we still hadn’t won back-to-back games at this point of the season, suggested that instead of hoping to climb the table, we had a real battle on our hands to stay in League 1.
To be continued…
Up the O’s!
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