Justin Edinburgh's O's continued their strong pre-season with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Vanarama National League South side, East Thurrock United.
East Thurrock United  0-4 Leyton Orient
Bonne 34'Â
                             Mooney 57'
                             Koroma 68'
                             McAnuff 88'
East Thurrock Starting XI: Giddens, Burn, Stephens, Konchesky, Scott, Knights, Simmons, Harris, Higgins, Marlow, Derry - Subs: Dudamo, Marlow, Derry
Leyton Orient Starting XI: Brill, Judd, Coulson, Elokobi, Widdowson, Dayton, Clay, Lee, Clayden, Bonne, Mooney - Subs (all used on the 60th minute): Lawless, Ekpietia, Happe, Ogie, McAnuff, Kyprianou, Haxhiu, Brophy, Koroma, AlabiÂ
Summary
Leyton Orient take a big step forward in their preparations for the new National League season with a 4-0 win at East Thurrock United.Â
A very dull first half was followed up by a more creative, prolific and exciting second. The O's went into the half-time break 1-0 up through Maccauley Bonne, who headed home Charlie Lee's cross after 34 minutes.Â
The hosts gave the O's a scare just before the break when East Thurrock played a fantastic ball into Higgins who headed past Brill, but fortunately he was flagged offside. If that was allowed this would've been such a different game.Â
After the break, Orient found their mojo as David Mooney, after scoring a fantastic lob against Benfica B last time out, scored again with his trademark chip following a flick on from Bonne after 57th minutes. Three minutes later Orient made several changes, substituting everyone besides goalkeeper Dean Brill, who had a quiet second half.Â
In the 68th minute, Orient got their third. Josh Koroma's fifth goal in pre-season was produced by youngster Ogie who finds Koroma in space and later finds the back of the net - despite the goalkeeper getting a strong hand on it. Jobi McAnuff rounded up a great second half of football from the O's with his cut back strike deflected into the net with two minutes from time.Â
A good display from the O's, very good signs from this team, beating a battling and competitive East Thurrock side one division below Orient by a large margin. The whole squad seems to be confident and jubilant right now and that has shown in this pre-season after a battling 5-4 defeat to SLB B (Benfica B) in Algarve last week and an emphatic 7-0 victory over Harlow Town before the tour.
A few players stood out, Koroma's continued good form will put a smile on many O's faces, this upcoming campaign will be big for him. Hopefully Mooney will be able to keep doing well in front of goal, a few more goals this season could make a massive difference for us later on in the campaign. Youngster Sadrach Ogie looks very promising having put in a good shift in his half hour against the Rocks and it will be interesting to see how well he does this season. Ogie joined Orient's academy from AFC Hornchurch's youth set up last season. Another excellent acquisition by the Leyton Orient scouting team.
Leyton Orient's next opposition comes in the form of Concord Rangers, as the O's will take a trip to Thames Road to face off against Sammy Moore's side.