The O's lost back-to-back defeats for the first time this season with a 2-0 defeat away at Ebbsfleet United, Roman Quane reports on the game.
Ebbsfleet 2 - 0 Leyton Orient
Ebbsfleet Starting XI: Ashmore, King, Magri, Adams, Kedwell, (C), Drury (Rance 84), Cheek (McDonald 90+5), Payne, Bush, Graham (Whitely 81), Wilson SUBS: Weston, Miles
Leyton Orient Starting XI: Brill, Ling, Elokobi (Turley 67), Happe, Widdowson, Maguire-Drew (Harrold 67), Lee (Clay 67), Lawless, Brophy, Koroma, Bonne SUBS: Sargeant, Alabi
Match Summary
The game started and Ebbsfleet were keen to make a good start, George Elokobi and Dean Brill very busy in the opening 10 minutes from returning Fleet veteran striker Danny Kedwell.
15 minutes in the O's have their first big chance given an indirect free kick in the opposition half after Ashmore picked up Margi's back pass, which Maguire Drew sets Bonne who's shot got blocked.
Just after a brief break in play in which Ebou Adams was being treated for a head clash, on 23 minutes the Fleet took the lead in front of the travelling supporters, King firing into the net after the O's couldn't clear a corner.
Just after the half hour the O's broke out to the wings, Maguire-Drew cutting in and turning his defender inside out and was in on goal with his shot was well saved by Ashmore.
A few minutes later Ashmore was at it again, Brophy's low cross to Bonne who's shot was well saved by the keeper.
10 minutes after the break the O's had a great chance to go level, the ball found it self to Koroma in the box who's powerful effort was tipped over the bar by Ashmore.
Orient were denied by Ashmore again minutes later as Maguire-Drew's cross was headed back across from Widdowson to Happe but somehow the keeper kept it out each time making multiple saves.
Then on 63 minutes Ebbsfleet were awarded a, in my opinion, harsh free kick on the edge of the box which Chris Bush scored from, sending the Plough End into raptures.
Orient then made all 3 subs at once, Edinburgh clearly as frustrated and angered as the fans in the stands. After 70 minutes the home side were looking for a third to rub salt into Orients wounds, a running ball meet by Cheek on the line is put in to Kedwell who fires over.
New signing and substitute Jamie Turley had a crack at goal, almost coming victorious if it wasn't for the frame of the goal. In the last ten Corey Whitley forced Brill into a finger tip save and Koroma's free kick was held by the leaping Ashmore who then fell on the ball.
90 minutes on the clock and Orient were still looking to score, Matt Harold heading to Lawless who's blocked by bodies, Turley's header is scrambled off the line by defenders but the biggest chance was Koroma lifting the ball over Ashmore but the defender raced back to put his body on the line so Ebbsfleet kept a clean sheet and, unfortunately, all three points.
My Thoughts
A disappointing result, I personally feel Elokobi is past it he's made too many mistakes and I feel he cant cope with the pressure and the over-riding expectations of achieving promotion.
I thought Turley came on and done really well, thought he should've started, it was a risk but a one I feel we should've took. We were poor but there goalkeeper was man of the match, keeping 2/3 chances off the line and also playing a massive part of keeping Ebbsfleet ahead at 1-0.
Bonne missed a sitter today, I feel that all this transfer talk with him and Koroma has side-tracked them from playing to their best. Brill and Ling also struggled, poor performances.
I've seen people go into the annual panic on Twitter, We're still top and we've been given so much luck with Salford & Wrexham slipping up when we have. We need to take this on the chin and next week we go again, there's 16 games and a lot of football to be played.
I wrote something along the lines of that on Twitter to which I got responses like- ''When Will Orient fans realise Solihull are in the mix now, Wrexham have passed it'' - I agree we have to respect Solihull but I feel Salford & Wrexham will be in it till the end with us, from start to end of the campaign we've been toe-to-toe with each other and the likes of Harrogate, Fylde and Solihull come and go.
The next coming weeks we play teams that are in poor form, the last month we had teams in form and full of momentum like your Daggers and Ebbsfleet's, now Maidstone & Hartlepool are in poor form, I'm not saying they won't be hard fixtures but games that if were back to our best we can do it.
We all know Harrogate, Fylde and Wrexham will come to Brisbane Road to do a job and go with a game plan, ending successful and they might do us over. So, as we're top, we need to just keep building momentum and winning.
Player Ratings
Brill 5
Ling 5
Elokobi 5 (Turley 7)
Happe 5
Widdowson 5
Maguire-Drew 6 (Harrold 5 )
Lee 5 (Clay 6)
Lawless 5
Brophy 6
Koroma 6
Bonne 6
SUBS: Sargeant, Alabi
コメント