Independent Leyton Orient Forum

If we had collected 7/9 points over the last week that would have put us 20+ points ahead of 4th. We are not that good. Current league positions probably a fair reflection of the season so far and the only “positive” on a bad day/week.
Vigouroux. 6.5. Unbelievable save in the lead up to their goal. Then we dithered and dallied and they sneak one into the corner.
James. 6.5. I thought he had a good ish game. The only one who looked like creating anything with some incisive passing. Solid defensively.
Happe. 6. Beccles put Happe in the merde and Dan gets injured. Looks like one of those innocuous ones that could be serious. Knees and limping off ain’t going to be good.
Beccles. 5. Stupid sending off. Not his best game.
Hunt. 5.5. Typical Hunt in terms of it’s just how little you remember him doing. On one of his good days you remember him doing nothing for 90 mins. Today he mostly did nothing.
Pratley. MOM. 7.5. MOM by a mile. Put the rest of the team to shame. Relentless. Could have scored with our only real chance.
El Miz. 5.5. Started out really well and a great opening 20 minutes. Disappeared completely from then on.
Brown. 5.5. Gone off the boil lately. Battles and all that but when he goes to the locker for the defence splitting pass, the locker is bare.
Archibald. 5.5. Big games our big players need to show up. No impact.
Kelman. 5. Not good enough. 5 forwards and I would happily move the lot on.
Wareham. 4.5. Don’t want to be too harsh and Northampton do have a strong defence but was swallowed up whole and spat out at the final whistle.

Subs. 5.5 for Ogie who just about held it together. 6 for Duke Mac who added something. 5 for monks who didn’t.

Wellens. 5.5. Will probably be fuming at the ref which will be a good deflection tactic for a pretty dismal performance. Opening 20 minutes we looked decent but we got more and more bogged down and once they scored that was all she wrote.

Ref. 4. Homer.

Northampton. 6. On todays evidence there are better teams than them including stevenage. We made it easy.

Agree about Pratley and he should have scored, and with the exception of Vigs & Happe who went off injured very early in the rest were all 4 at best, the ref and and Lino were 2, they got bullied into disallowing a perfectly decent goal.

Pretty much spot on

Brown wasn't up to scratch in the CDM role, bit of a throwback to last Jan
El Miz wasn't great in his more advanced role either

Square pegs in round holes won't cut it against the better sides, hence investment required to get some competition and cover for the attacking midfield role plus the obvious deficiencies upfront.

Pratley excellent, perhaps just as well he came off as he could've blown the same way as Beckles did the way the ref was going.

Problems of our own making today, Happe injury coming about from Beckles being too casual seeing the ball out then a goal on the counter we should've dealt with on the halfway line. Vig will be rightly furious with his defence not clearing their lines after a great initial save.

I agree with you about our strikers . There doesn't seem to be that many goals between them . A new striker required during the transfer window

RedDwarf 1881 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:41 pm I agree with you about our strikers . There doesn't seem to be that many goals between them . A new striker required during the transfer window

270 minutes without a goal now, something needs to change.

What I find the most disappointing is that we were nowhere near our best today or against Stevenage

Was it happes knee? Wasn’t it his knee that put him out for 6 months last season? Fingers crossed

James a good-ish game? I thought he was poor.

Apple Wumble wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:52 pm Was it happes knee? Wasn’t it his knee that put him out for 6 months last season? Fingers crossed

Believe so

Loyal_Supporter wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:55 pm James a good-ish game? I thought he was poor.

I counted at least 4 occasions where he spread the ball across the park and gave possession directly to an opposition player (in most cases Hoskins). I thought he had an awful game. No idea how OP has rated him higher than Ogie who I thought was decent when he came on.

The ref was appalling. Not just bad/incorrect decisions but every single foul stopped the game for ages! Why can’t refs just give a foul, dish out a card if needed and get on with it? Why does every offence require a 30-60 second lecture? It’s incredibly tedious to watch.

Yeah James over hit or under hit every pass I saw him attempt

Loyal_Supporter wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:55 pm James a good-ish game? I thought he was poor.

James defensively was good, both at LB and CB.

But on the ball he was awful. Every pass was mis-hit.

Apple Wumble wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:52 pm Was it happes knee? Wasn’t it his knee that put him out for 6 months last season? Fingers crossed

Carried on for a few minutes before giving up, so hopefully not too bad.

Fair enough re James. At least he was involved and gave 100% but as mentioned, there were a lot of misplaced passes to go along with any good stuff.

I wasn’t at the game, but shortly after we conceded, I got a notification from Sky saying Beckles had equalised. Spent the rest of the time thinking we were drawing 1-1… what happened?

Greenwich Orient wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:17 pm I wasn’t at the game, but shortly after we conceded, I got a notification from Sky saying Beckles had equalised. Spent the rest of the time thinking we were drawing 1-1… what happened?

I was at the game and still puzzled why it was chalked off..The Ref gave the goal,Cobblers players surrounded the ref and Lino then goal disallowed..

Greenwich Orient wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:17 pm I wasn’t at the game, but shortly after we conceded, I got a notification from Sky saying Beckles had equalised. Spent the rest of the time thinking we were drawing 1-1… what happened?

Disallowed for offside from the free-kick

Frogger wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:35 pm Agree about Pratley and he should have scored, and with the exception of Vigs & Happe who went off injured very early in the rest were all 4 at best, the ref and and Lino were 2, they got bullied into disallowing a perfectly decent goal.

goal was offside. Kelman deliberately stood 3m behind the defensive line. Ball ricochets to him and he stabs it goalwards before we finally scramble it in. The only surprise was that the ref took so long to disallow it. I did not see but I think the Lino may have been talked into giving the decision.

Apple Wumble wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:52 pm Was it happes knee? Wasn’t it his knee that put him out for 6 months last season? Fingers crossed

Looked more like an ankle injury to me. Think that’s what the physio treated. Either that or a calf/shin.

TRUMP Plumbing wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 7:49 pm

Apple Wumble wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:52 pm Was it happes knee? Wasn’t it his knee that put him out for 6 months last season? Fingers crossed

Carried on for a few minutes before giving up, so hopefully not too bad.

We'll know more after Ogie and Happe both have a scan . Hopefully their injuries aren't as bad as we fear.

Think a couple of the ratings were well off in what was a very even game. Kelman worked hard but may as well played up front alone. Wareham offered nothing (looks like a poacher than a player to me). El Miz was not at the races today and the back 4 were solid enough. Any problems they cause us were largely self inflicted. Brown was better than indicated and he and Pratley has the middle of the park sorted.

A common theme but we lacked penetration. Games finishing level at full time don’t get decided by possession stats. We are not creative enough in the final third atm. It’s not just the Smyth factor either. Whomever plays 10 atm is redundant right now. Might be a reluctance to play them in, but even when we do there’s no willing runner to finish off a move.

In Ritchie we trust.

Personally after watching the game I thought the change of formation killed us. We was just on top before Happe went off then we changed shape when Ogie came on. Offered absolutely nothing once we changed to wing backs and can’t understand why we didn’t revert to the formation that’s served us so well.

Agreed.

Hunt is too defensive to be a wing back. Archibald is too offensive to be a wing back. El Miz had looked bright in the 10 role just behind Wareham but then dropped deeper with 2 up top and wasn’t as effective.