As pre-season draws to a close and with the Salford fixture just around the corner, we take a look at Orient's pre-season and discuss why it's been a successful run-out for the O's.
Orient had a convincing pre-season which started with a 7-0 victory away at eighth tier Harlow Town, Koroma bagging four goals in this fixture with Bonne, Brophy and new signing Alabi also on the scoresheet.
Then the O's went on a European Tour, travelling to the Algarve in Portugal for their pre-season tour facing Benfica B at the Estadio Municipal de Alubferia, the O's narrowly lost 5-4 in a game where they came back from 4-1 down to concede an unfortunate 89th minute penalty.
The O's returned to regular pre season action with a 4-0 victory over East Thurrock United, then a 3-2 victory against Concord Rangers where the O's again came back from behind to win. Justin Edinburgh's men drew 1-1 at St Albans City and then concluded their campaign with a 2-2 draw with League One Southend United, James Alabi scored the pick of the goals as he equalized from 20 yards with 13 minutes remaining.
A good pre-season, some very good results and games where Orient have battled and got in the game, a narrow defeat against Benfica B (coming back from 4-1 down) and a 2-2 draw with Southend (who are now two divisions above Orient) are the pick of my pre season. Very positive results which will give us confidence ahead of the new season.
Reasons As To Why It's Been a Successful Pre-Season
1. Goals, goals, goals
The O's have literally been scoring for fun during pre-season, finding the back of the net of 24 occasions during six games - on average thats four goals per game.
2. Josh Koroma
The young forward scored the most goals of any Leyton Orient player during pre-season. Yes, even more than Macauley Bonne. This pre-season has been a great introduction to the 2018/19 campaign for Koroma as it looks like he has found his goal-scoring touch and long may it continue.
3. The Difficulty of Opposition
The draw against St Albans aside, Leyton Orient have proved their worth against some tough opposition this summer. The O's were unlucky to lose to Benfica B with a penalty in the dying minutes of the game gifting the win to the Portuguese side. Furthermore, Orient impressed against local rivals Southend United as they held the League One outfit to a draw.
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