After a slow start to the season with a team painfully short on goals, and after a battle against relegation in 2011/12, Leyton Orient recovered superbly to mount a play-off challenge with some long unbeaten runs during this season. The talismanic Kevin Lisbie was central to the achievements, and despite at times having great consistency, they never managed to enter the play-off places. Russell Slade deserves immense credit for that, and some experienced players who have played at a higher level in Lee Cook, Martin Rowlands and Lisbie helped them secure a lofty finish similar to that of two years ago. 2011/12 was a very unusual season as it took Orient so long to win a single match before they managed an impressive run of form in mid-season and going back into their shell for the remainder. 2012/13 was another slow start, with goals at a premium. I saw the match vs Brentford where they won 1-0 in a game where they created very little, not to mention that the goal was offside. That was the second of three successive wins but a poor run followed before they finally started to move up the League One table with six wins in seven between November and December. From then on, Orient were tremendous, and defeats were rare. The only disappointment after Christmas really was the failure to reach the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, losing unexpectedly to League Two Southend. Otherwise since the end of February they've only lost two matches, against struggling sides, ironically. But overall it was very successful. The only other thing to say concerns the Olympic Stadium. Is it likely that Orient will at least share it?
My view of the season would be: Slade decided that in view of the number of goals we shipped at set pieces, that he was going to bring in some height and rely on scoring from set pieces ourselves. So Symes up front, with cameos from Brunt and Clarke brought in to bolster the defence. Then we got lucky, James was injured and so we began to use Moses at right back and Clarke got injured, meaning Baudry started playing CB. During the period that Baudry was partnered with Chorley, we lost only 3 out of something like 16 games. Unfortunately when we played Southend, we had a new CB partnership with Cuthbert coming in and that took some time to settle, during which we lost out to the Shrimpers. Other fortunate events, were being able to pick up Cook and Rowlands, which meant we could ditch the long ball and play with 2 wide men and have the ability to pass the ball through midfield. At the end, injuries probably cost us a shot at 6th place, as without Lisbie we found it difficult to put our chances away and without Baudry at the end, our defence was weaker, despite the heriocs from Vincelot. A good season, which surprisingly emerged from a poor start. As for the OS, I think we might win an oral appeal, but I'm fairly certain WH don't want to share with us and all the legacy bods have to do, is price us out of the equation to keep their anchor tenant, if it went to a new bid.
The southend fixture really baffles me.still !!!!! We dominated both games, yet still lost....how can that be Southend were second best in both games for long periods, yet over 2 legs, they beat us It will remain a mystery to me for the rest of my life4
