Leyton Orient 1 v 1 Ebbsfleet United
Leyton Orient Starting XI: Brill, Ling, Widdowson, Lawless ( Lee 75), Elokobi ( Epiteta 3), Coulson, McAnuff ©, Clay, Bonne, Brophy ( Koroma 66), Alabi
Ebbsfleet United Starting XI: Ashmore, King, Magri, Powell, Adams ( Whitely 77), Kedwell ©, Drury, Weston (Coulson 58), McQueen (Cheek 65), Shields, Bush
Summary of the Fixture
Orient boss, Justin Edinburgh, made one change from the side that started away at Salford City on the opening day of the season, and that was James Brophy in for Josh Koroma.
Ebbsfleet kicked the game off at Brisbane Road and straight away had a good chance at goal when Darren McQueen wormed his way through the Orient defence, but his shot was skied way over the bar. After McQueen’s shot Orient fans favourite, George
Elokobi, went down with what looked like a hamstring injury, he was replaced by Marvin Ekpiteta with three minutes on the clock.
Ebbsfleet came out with all guns blazing in the first fifteen minutes and probably should have been a goal in front, but it was Orient who opened the scoring on the counter attack. Macauley Bonne found space down the right flank before unselfishly picking out James Brophy, who calmly slotted it home from twelve yards on the 17th minute.
But Ebbsfleet responded well after going a goal down against the run of play and forced Orient keeper Dean Brill to dive to the right after a fierce strike by Myles Weston.
Half time came and the game had levelled out a bit, but Ebbsfleet edged the half and didn’t deserve to be behind, Orient fans definitely the happier bunch at the break.
Orient started the second half as they meant to go on, being very dominant and creating some good chances. James Alabi went for an ambitious overhead kick, but saw his effort go just wide of the Ebbsfleet goal.
Ebbsfleet fans thought they had levelled the scoring when Kedwell put the ball in the back of the net, but much to the Fleet faithfuls disappointment it was ruled out for offside.
With ten minutes to go, Os skipper Jobi McAnuff had a shot blocked, then the ball fell to Josh Koroma who was somehow denied by a spectacular save from Ebbsfleet keeper Nathan Ashmore.
In a very tense last five minutes, Ebbsfleet should have been level as Michael Cheek was unable to keep Whitely’s cut back down.
The Os then countered with a great solo effort from new signing James Alabi who found himself one-on-one with Fleet keeper Ashmoore, but it was the goalkeeper who came out on top denying - Orient a second that would have won them the game.
But in typical Orient style we didn’t finish off our chances and eventually regretted it when Whitely’s long range effort was deflected in the back of the net in the 91st minute.
But Orient had one last chance when Bonne headed agonisingly wide from Marvin Ekpiteta’s cross deep in added time. The full time whistle blew straight after leaving Os fans gutted.
Was it two points dropped or a point gained?
Player Ratings
Brill - 7 Widdowson- 6 Elokobi N/A ( Epiteta 8) Coulson- 6 Ling- 6 Brophy- 7 ( Koroma 6) Clay- 8 Lawless- 6 ( Lee 6) McAnuff- 8 Bonne- 6 Alabi- 6
Vlog
To get a visual view of this fixture, please check out my vlog below which includes match highlights and pre/post match analysis:
