Independent Leyton Orient Forum

My first game was in 1982 and the team performance for me is in my top 3.
I know we drew against Arsenal and beat Fulham, but collectively I thought they were absolutely immense yesterday and the performance surpassed those matches and others.
My top 3 is as follows :
Grimsby 5-0 1989
Man City 1-2 2025
Hull 2-0 2001

Chelsea 72-73, Middlesborough 77-78, West Ham 1978

3-1 away at Peterborough in 2013
8-0 Rochdale 1987

Doesn’t rank anywhere for me. We lost.

Beradogs wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 4:09 pm Doesn’t rank anywhere for me. We lost.

Surely the half and half scarf compensated for this minor detail?

Winning the play off semi and final this year would mean far more

Beating Peterborough in the playoff semi-final to get to Wembley was the pinnacle personally, wasn't there yesterday but for those who were how did the atmosphere compare to 2014 when the ground was rocking?

Next up the TEHOUÉ moment against Arsenal in a close second.

The best Orient memories have been made over the course of a season NL and L2 titles rather than a single game but getting to HT 1-0 up against Premiership champions is going to be a good memory to look back on.

Based on ‘performance’, which is what the OP states, then yes, yesterday is probably the best I have ever seen an Orient side play

We were brilliant, but I doubt this game will be remembered with the same degree of reverence in years to come as Oxford, Bradford, Fulham and Tehoué v Arsenal.

essexfootball wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:02 pm Winning the play off semi and final this year would mean far more

Absolutely this .

Does nobody understand what the word performance means?

Yeah was trying to emphasise how incredible the performance was, not the end result!

lordgriff wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 8:07 pm Yeah was trying to emphasise how incredible the performance was, not the end result!

The two go hand in hand imo, is losing narrowly to Man City better than drawing with Arsenal for instance?

gshaw wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 8:10 pm

lordgriff wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 8:07 pm Yeah was trying to emphasise how incredible the performance was, not the end result!

The two go hand in hand imo, is losing narrowly to Man City better than drawing with Arsenal for instance?

The Arsenal result was better of course, but the performance against City yesterday was superior. So to agrue that the two go hand in hand, I have to disagree.

gshaw wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 8:10 pm

lordgriff wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 8:07 pm Yeah was trying to emphasise how incredible the performance was, not the end result!

The two go hand in hand imo, is losing narrowly to Man City better than drawing with Arsenal for instance?

But they don’t go hand in hand, do they? You can play badly and win, you can play well and lose.

Yesterday was almost certainly the best performance I have ever seen from an Orient team.

For all-round team performance, Lord Griff, that 5-0 home victory over Grimsby still ranks for me as number one. We dominated that game more or less for the full 90 mins, and we very rarely did such a thing in those dark days of the 1980s. It was an easy, nerveless watch as an O's fan.

Comfort, Campbell, Harvey and the rest of the team were ruthless in attack. Everything just clicked that day and gave us extra impetus for the play off push that season.

Yesterday's game was a tremendous team performance too for so many different reasons. To go toe to toe with the champions and be 1-0 up at half time with a wondergoal, well, that takes some doing (especially without the likes of Archibald, Beckles, Graham, O'Neill, Abdulai, Clare and a fully fit Agyei).

The performance against Chelsea in ‘78 was the benchmark for me for years, but yesterday’s showing was outstanding, and as an overall team performance it was about as good as it gets. It was that good.

Up near the top, but when one has supported the Os for 55 seasons, there have been others.

EliotNes wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 8:05 am Up near the top, but when one has supported the Os for 55 seasons, there have been others.

I can’t think of any in the past 40 odd years.

Name them.

Home to Shrewsbury (28 April 1968,). We needed to win to avoid relegation. In the sixth minute Slater crossed for Bullock to blast in a shot from the edge of the penalty area and nearly take out the net. Rofe's cross 12 minutes later found Dyson, heading over Shrewsbury's offside trap and drilling the ball home. Terry Parmenter was sent off for kicking after some rough tackling from Shrewsbury's Tony Gregory. Bloomfield's 30 yard free kick was headed on by Bullock to the unmarked Mancini who headed the ball home for the third goal. In the 68th minute Dave Harper added a fourth. The East London Advertiser gave every player 10 out of 10 for their performance except for the sent off Parmenter.

Ones that spring to mind simply as a performance and not just the result.

Peterborough away 2013 - Dominated against a team who everyone thought would end our good run.
Brentford away 2013 - Smashed em
Bristol Rovers Home around 2009/10 - Tues night, played them off the park
Rotherham playoff final - I know this is a weird one but its easy to forget that we basically dominated the game aside from a 15 min period. Even in extra time we had all the chances. In such a big game we turned up.
Man city home

Thinking performance based only.

v Norwich 2-1
v Peterborough 1-3
v Brentford 0-2
v Arsenal 1-1
v City 1-2

There have been many better results, but performance based against what would be considered superior competition where I have come away from a ground absolutely chuffed with my choice to support and inflict Orient on my wife and son it is in my recent(ish) top 5.

Turk wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 9:57 am Thinking performance based only.

v Norwich 2-1
v Peterborough 1-3
v Brentford 0-2
v Arsenal 1-1
v City 1-2

There have been many better results, but performance based against what would be considered superior competition where I have come away from a ground absolutely chuffed with my choice to support and inflict Orient on my wife and son it is in my recent(ish) top 5.

Norwich performance was excellent. Sean Thornton's magnum opus for the club. Allied to the pressure we were under to win as well. Russell Slade's second game in charge IIRC

I think the opposition has to be account with the performance question though, and it was Man City so I would concur it is the best performance I've seen from an O's side.
We lost to a deflection, and a moment of adroit precision you would likely only attain from a bloke earning 400 grand a week (de Bruyne)
Could have salvaged it at the end too. Orient were immense.

I genuinely don't know how we can objectively judge a performance so recent and raw in the memory vs one from eg 14 years ago (Arsenal) which our memories have long since mangled and delegated to YouTube.

I don't know, I have many memories from that game. Probably in clearer detail than I remember the second leg against Peterborough in the Play Offs