Hartlepool 1 - 1 Leyton Orient
Hartlepool Starting XI: Loach, Donaldson (C), Kioso, Raynes, Anderson (Cunningham 87), Amos, Featherstone, Molyneux (Noble 44), Hawkes, Kabamba, James SUBS: Kitching, Hawkins, Muir
Leyton Orient Starting XI: Brill, Judd, Turley, Happe, Widdowson, Brophy, Clay, Lee (Lawless 80), McAnuff (C), Bonne, Harrold (Alabi 68) SUBS: Sargeant, Sotiriou, Ogie
Match Summary
Two minutes in to the affair at Victoria Park and the home side came close to opening the scoring, the ball lofted in to Molyneux who headed to Nicky Kabamba - who was fortunately offside. A few moments later, Josh Hawkes cut in and his effort was well saved by Brill from the edge of the box, then over 10 minutes later a dangerous counter attack by the home side was stopped, superbly, by Happe.
Then a minute later the O's took the lead. Following his 700th career appearance and the social media build-up in the week, it was only fitting that Jobi McAnuff was the goal scorer. Matt Harold did well to hold up the ball then found veteran winger McAnuff who's shot from outside the box slowly creeped past the goalkeeper at an incredibly slow pace. Orient then went for a second, Brophy drove into open space on the wing then fired in a cross who missed Harold's head by inches.
Just after the half hour mark, the O's were playing great football in my opinion. Hartlepool were progressing up the pitch and the ball was won back by Clay who later delivers a long ball to Brophy. The ball finds it's way to McAnuff who advances into the box dribbling past the Hartlepool defenders. Jobi later plays a on-two with Widdowson who then sets up Bonne from close range but his shot was heroically blocked by the defender. What a move, how did it not go in!
In traditional Orient fashion after not putting away a chance like that, Hartlepool's first clear chance ends up in the back of the net. Nicky Kabamba the goal scorer in added time at the end of the first half.
Hartlepool started the second half very lively. Hawkes knocks the ball past the defence but Turley catches back up to him and slide tackles seeing the ball out for a corner. From this set-piece, the ball was palmed away by Brill and found Kioso, who misses the target. The home side were at it again minutes later, Kabamba getting the right side of the Orient defence but strikes wide.
On 58 minutes Hartlepool won a penalty, up stepped midfielder Liam Noble for Hartlepool who's poor penalty was saved by Brill who dived the right way, a lucky escape for the O's. Minutes later Orient started to attack with danger again. Brophy receives the ball and goes on a run and fires an amazing shot but a defender was thrown at it to block it from going in.
Then, McAnuff cut in and out the defenders on the edge of the 18-yard-box and fired a great strike that was well tipped round by Loach. The 450 travelling O's were stunned how close they came. 10 minutes later, following medical treatment of a Pool player, Bonne flicked on a ball to Alabi who took a poor heavy touch and the ball was gathered by Loach.
Into added time now, 91 minutes and Brophy races to the byline and squares it to Alabi who's shot is blocked. Just a minute later, the O's came agonizingly close to a winner through Brophy but Loach denied the Orient winger. Three minutes later a corner for Orient, it meets Turley but goes wide.
Full time and it ends 1-1, all square, O's remain top of the table following Braintree's last gasp winner against Salford in their 1-0 home win.
My Thoughts
At times the game was fast flowing, exciting and lively and then it was dull, flat and scrappy, one of those games, but I suppose the windy conditions had a part to play on the performance of both teams. I personally thought we were given another poor ref, definitely angered many O's fans, I hadn't seen some people so angry in a long while. Joe Widdowson had a great game today, he really is an unsung hero in this O's side amongst many good players and fan favourites, Joe performs well consistently on a weekly basis, a very good talent.
Felt we were unlucky not to take away all three points, feel attacking in the 90+ minute's isn't as effective as it was earlier in the season, back then we nicked a few goals getting good results, we need to keep going. Felt that Brophy shouldn't have tried the back heel it the death, should've pelted it into the net and would have been a hero. However it could've been a totally different game if Noble put away that penalty.
Yet again other teams helped us out to keep Salford at bay, but I feel now is the time we need to start looking at Solihull as a danger, they've been around us for a while now and who knows what might happen next. Harold wasn't shocking yesterday, still dead wood but didn't do anything, Alabi come on and got stuck in made a few good passes and had a shot blocked due to some bodies on the line defending.
I think we need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible, if we don't then we can fall into a run of hard games or get to the business end of the season and struggle because the league is so tight, everyone is playing for something.
We go again Saturday, hopefully we will be hearing Rocking all Over the World again.
Player Ratings
Brill 7
Judd 6
Turley 7
Happe 7
Widdowson 8
Brophy 7
Clay 7
Lee 6 (Lawless 6),
McAnuff (C) 8
Bonne 6
Harrold 5 (Alabi 6)
SUBS:
Sargeant
Sotiriou
Ogie
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