A Fan’s Perspective: O’s Continue To Look For Their First Win of the Season After Drawing, Again

The O’s played their second home game of the season and struggled to get a win, managing just a draw after being behind early on and conceding a late equaliser.

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Final Score: Leyton Orient 2 - 2 Barrow

Leyton Orient Starting XI: Brill, Ling, Widdowson, Ekpiteta, Coulson, McAnuff (C), Clay, Lee (Dayton 71), Brophy, Bonne, Alabi (Koroma 65)

Barrow Starting XI: Firth, Brown, Jones, Taylor, Grainite (C), Hindle, Rooney, Kay (Carroll-Burgess 71), Turner (Waterston 22), Smith (Correia 80), Jameson

Summary

Edinburgh made just the two changes to the team that started on Tuesday night. Ekpiteta came in for the injured Elokobi and Lee started instead of Lawless who started on the bench.

Orient started poorly in my opinion, allowing Barrow too much time on the ball and weren’t pressing like they had in the first two games of the season. The visitors gave Orient an early warning by hitting the post just after two minutes which had easily beaten Brill. Only a minute later, Barrow took the lead with some inept defending allowing them to score with Hindle getting away from Lee and firing across Brill to score.

Barrow looked to get another straight away when Clay took too long on a simple clearance, as he was closed down by a Barrow player. Hindle had a shot which was deflected across goal and, luckily, Coulson was on hand to clear away the danger.

It took Orient about 30 minutes to register their first real chance as McAnuff brought the ball forward, cutting in from the left and hitting a low shot wide of the goal. 

Unfortunately for Orient that was their only real chance of the first half. Barrow spent most of the half timewasting with the goalkeeper the main culprit by claiming he had been hurt from a cross and lying on the floor for at least five minutes, which didn’t go down well the home faithful. 

Orient came out for the second half unchanged, they started the brighter team and were unlucky to not equalise after seven minutes. Orient managed to pull a few passes together with McAnuff later firing a cross into the path of Bonne who thought he had scored but the Barrow keeper somehow keeping it out with his face. The keeper then decided to fall down which annoyed the home support, as they were unsure if he was hurt or timewasting yet again.

Bonne didn’t have to wait long in this half to register his first goal of the campaign, with a long throw from Lee finding Coulson who flicked the ball into the box as it was later met by the striker. 

Both teams were looking for the lead, Barrow thought they deserved a penalty which would have been harsh on Orient in my opinion. Brill also made a smart save to deny Waterson.

Edinburgh later made a change with Koroma coming on for Alabi, with it nearly paid off straight away with a McAnuff corner finding Koroma at the back post, who headed straight at the keeper. 

Barrow were struggling with Koroma and Bonne’s pace and these two combined to help Orient take the lead. Ling’s long ball found Koroma who beat the offside trap and ran into the box to find his strike partner, Macauley Bonne. 2-1 Orient. 

But Orient’s hard work was undone just five minutes later as Brill tried to collect a ball through a crowd of players. Failing to reach it, Correia poked the ball into the net.

Both teams struggled to find a winner and the referee blew the final whistle after a competitive 90 minutes of football. And Orient drawing their third game in a row. 

Not the start Orient had in mind, three games they should have won in my opinion and three games they drew. We were better in the first two games but we played below standard against Barrow. We need to win on Tuesday to get the monkey off our back and get three points on the board. Just not another draw, please Orient. 

My Player Ratings

Brill (5) – One of his worse games for Orient, in my opinion, and at fault for the second goal.

Ling (6) – Struggled at times but good long ball for Orient’s second goal.

Widdowson (7) – Probably Orient’s best defender yesterday.

Coulson (6) – Made a couple good blocks.

Ekpiteta (6) – Looked a little nervous at times.

McAnuff (8) - My Man of Match, never stopped running, great leader.

Clay (5) – Didn’t really contribute in my opinion, Lawless should have been playing instead.

Lee (6) – Made a few good tackles and a good long throw for Orient’s equaliser.

Brophy (7) – Hardworking and direct runs at the opposition as usual.

Bonne (8) – Good brace, will help him have some confidence to score more in the future.

Alabi (6) – Needs a goal, lots of running but not much impact on the game

Subs:

Koroma (7) – Good assist as he could of shot but was mature enough not to.

Dayton (6) – Didn’t have long to influence the game, hopefully he starts on Tuesday.