Independent Leyton Orient Forum

Play offs are now going to be a squeeze.

Squeaky bum time.

Yes, 9 wins from the last 12 games is going to be difficult.

Bergen wrote: ↑Sat Mar 01, 2025 10:47 pm Yes, 9 wins from the last 12 games is going to be difficult.

not a chance

Let's not judge just yet, we're going through a gruelling run playing some of the top 'inform' sides, with the most difficult game having to play with 10 men.

After next Saturday the schedule eases to one game a week and should have some players return.

Still plenty of points to play for and in true Orient style, totally expect it will all rest on the last game of the season.

If you look at 'difficult' games against the title/playoff contenders...

Leyton Orient - H to Wycombe, A to Huddersfield
Charlton - H to Huddersfield, A to Stockport, Wycombe, Wrexham
Bolton - H to Birmingham, Stockport, Wycombe
Huddersfield - H to Wrexham, Wycombe, A to Charlton, Stockport

Lots of our competitors taking points from each other. It's not over yet.

Also interesting to look at Wycombe, who have had a drop off of form recently. We won't catch them, but their run in includes...
H to Wrexham, Charlton, A to Huddersfield, Bolton, Orient

All good runs eventually come to an end as do losing streaks. We'll be fine.
However, gotta say _ this heretical thought keeps coming into my head: Keeley and Donley are both brilliant at this level and must remain first picks (of course). But does Keeley get pushed about too easily, does he spill the ball occasionally when it ought to be held? Does Donley try to take on his opposite numbers too extravagently and do his clever passes fail too often? No, they are both top class and we're lucky to have them but I believe they both have lessons to learn.

Orientnil wrote: ↑Sun Mar 02, 2025 10:52 am All good runs eventually come to an end as do losing streaks. We'll be fine.
However, gotta say _ this heretical thought keeps coming into my head: Keeley and Donley are both brilliant at this level and must remain first picks (of course). But does Keeley get pushed about too easily, does he spill the ball occasionally when it ought to be held? Does Donley try to take on his opposite numbers too extravagently and do his clever passes fail too often? No, they are both top class and we're lucky to have them but I believe they both have lessons to learn.

Yes, both are still learning the trade and need to remember that they are both relatively young. Keeley is also abit slight for a keeper.

Donley was really poor yesterday. Imagine he's been run into the ground but nothing came off and he was making some bad decisions once in dangerous areas.

Update: Play off push is officially over.

Yes I agree going too be very hard to make the playoffs will have to rely on others to lose and help us out

The plain fact is at this present time we just can’t deal with high balls into our box and that includes the keeper as good a shot stopper that he is. At this present time we must have the smallest back four in our history. What I can’t understand why start Dan A last night and not against Charlton? A couple of days doesn’t make that much difference and if not fit why have him on the bench? Some of the players are running on empty. The game against Charlton Pratley could could hardly run at the being the second half and yet he keeps him on for the whole game? Bizarre. Kelman has no composure in front of goal and signing Perkins was imo a total waste of money.The season was over when we lost to Bolton and I think that defeat affected the team in the manor we lost it. Wellens should use this time now carefully and think about next season and who we spend the money we get from Galbraith on. A permanent keeper of good quality is a must and try to purchase Currie if possible as he balances the team. Also this obsession with so many wide players has to stop and concentrate on a decent CF. He needs to look at more robust players for this league as we have been bullied to many times even though we are a very good footballing side. We need to do more due diligence on players when we sign them and not sign injury prone players and not so many loans as we have to start the whole bonding process each and every season and for the last two seasons it has taken us 8/10 games to get going.

Any playoff chances are doomed.

No. We had a fantastic run that put us right up there in the mix, for a good reason. We were playing really well and everything finally clicked. Then the injuries hit again, and losing Becks was a huge blow cos he had been immense up until then. Then we had three tough games, and if things had been slightly different we could have got points from at least two of them. Last night was a bad result though, no question. We didn’t play well, we looked knackered and Kelman reverted to type after a great spell.

I thought the signings of Markanday, Abdulai, Williams and Edmond’s-Green were excellent, and that we’d really push on for the playoffs, but they’ve all tailed off after great starts, and that’s disappointing. Keeley has shown his faults too, and that’s unsettled things.

We’ve now got a relatively easy game on Saturday and that’ll be a good indicator of how we can recover from this slide. The playoffs aren’t beyond us if we can rediscover the form that got us up to sixth, but we’ve got to do it fast. If not, it’s been a great couple of months.

Have to take the positives
Currie has had a decent rest!
REG has proved his worth
Sweeney has had some minutes
Agyei is looking good

Ok, so we’ve had a dip due to combo of injuries/schedule/
That sometimes happens.
Need to regroup/reset and go again.
We will soon have Currie back, Simpson, few weeks sounds like Happe will be available, add in Clare is slowly getting there.
Also might see James & Becks before end of season
Let’s see how we do then
Might be too late for play offs, but from where we were 4 months ago top half finish is a result.
Need to start planning for next season now.

Stowaway wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 9:23 am No. We had a fantastic run that put us right up there in the mix, for a good reason. We were playing really well and everything finally clicked. Then the injuries hit again, and losing Becks was a huge blow cos he had been immense up until then. Then we had three tough games, and if things had been slightly different we could have got points from at least two of them. Last night was a bad result though, no question. We didn’t play well, we looked knackered and Kelman reverted to type after a great spell.

I thought the signings of Markanday, Abdulai, Williams and Edmond’s-Green were excellent, and that we’d really push on for the playoffs, but they’ve all tailed off after great starts, and that’s disappointing. Keeley has shown his faults too, and that’s unsettled things.

We’ve now got a relatively easy game on Saturday and that’ll be a good indicator of how we can recover from this slide. The playoffs aren’t beyond us if we can rediscover the form that got us up to sixth, but we’ve got to do it fast. If not, it’s been a great couple of months.

Not only Beck's but Currie, James , Simpson and Happe as well . Losing five first choice defenders has pretty much ended our play off hopes . All we can do now is try and win as many games as possible and see where we end up . There is always that faint hope .

Mistadobalina wrote: ↑Sun Mar 02, 2025 11:24 am Donley was really poor yesterday. Imagine he's been run into the ground but nothing came off and he was making some bad decisions once in dangerous areas.

I think fatigue, teams know he is a danger and he is a young player he is going to have bad games/spells, yesterday was crying out for Gailbraith to be pushed into his position

Yeah because Ethan is as fresh as a daisy right now. FFS.