Orient left it late to earn a point away to Salford City in the O's first game of the new National League season, Salford failing to live up to their expectations live on BT Sport in front of the nations eyes.
Salford City 1-1 Leyton Orient
Gaffney 47' Clay 86'
The Lineups
Salford City: Neal, Wiseman, Touary, Maynard, Hogan (C), Piergianni, Lloyd (Haughton 70), Whitehead, Rooney, Gaffney, Walker (Mustafa 85)
Unused Subs: Crocombe, Shelton, Pond
Leyton Orient: Brill, Ling (Lee 80), Coulson, Elokobi, Widdowson, Koroma (Dayton 80), Clay, Lawless (60), McAnuff (C), Alabi, Bonne.
Unused Subs: Ekpiettia, Sargent
The Summary
Salford City and Leyton Orient kicked off the Vanarama National League Season live on BT Sport with the league's early kick off, with the Ammines playing their first game in the fifth tier.
After early domination by the home side, Orient found their first break after 20 minutes where Sam Ling cut back and found Alex Lawless who's decent attempt slammed the frame of the goal. Salford then had a decent opportunity to break the deadlock, Tom Walker breaking through for Salford only to have his shot parried by Dean Brill.
On the brink of half time the O's broke, Clay found Alabi in the box who's shot was tipped round by Neal, an opportunity that came sharp and quick. The referee later blew his whistle after a possession focused first half at the Peninsula Stadium.
Two minutes after the restart the O's found themselves behind, Gaffney tapped home a low ball into the Orient net, running off into the jubilant Salford end. Orient then had a flew half opportunities, McAnuff's header travelled across the face of goal to find no rebound, followed by Salford applying the pressure forcing Dean Brill into a good stop.
Justin Edinburgh then made a controversial decision to take off Alex Lawless, despite the O's trailing he was having a good game putting in a lot of effort, he was replaced by James Brophy, the playmaker Orient needed in this situation.
Then in the last 20 minutes, Orient developed into the better side, building some good attacks but struggled in the final third, missing some absolute sitters in my opinion. The first of which was where Macauley Bonne controlled and went round the keeper to have his attempt blocked by a 'bodies on the line' stop from a Salford defender.
Then new signing James Alabi received a smooth crisp ball and instead of hitting it on the volley 18 yards out he let it bounce and rapidly run and ended up miskicking the ball when pressured as it spiralled out of control, going for a goal kick. With another attack being wasted.
Then, on the 84th minute, substitute Charlie Lee's header smashed the post and the ball bounced on the line until a game winning slide tackle clearance stopping the ball reaching the Orient net. After this I was confident we wasn't going to score, we had missed to many opportunities and the ball wasn't going in the net.
From that corner kick, the ball's floated in what seemed a dramatic goal line scramble, with it suddenly falling to Craig Clay who just got enough on it to find the back of the net. This sent the Orient faithful behind that goal into a frenzy of excitement and joy, several O's rushed to the pitch to celebrate with the players, also many pushed onto the pitch due to the extremely low advertising boards.
But who cared, in the 86th minute Orient had snatched a point against the title favourites.
Personally despite the last attack from the O's, resulting in absolute scenes, there is still a lot to be done with the team, possibly due to the club's lack of activity in the transfer window it's pretty much the same team.
We didn't look comfortable in the first half, they were very much in control. Watching our attacks was really frustrating. The same tactics as last season, hoof the ball up to the two forwards and let them do the rest, this doesn't work when you play against teams like Salford who play decent football. However, I get this tactic may work when we play the likes off Solihull Moors, who don't really play exciting football (no offence).
Alex Lawless had a good game until he went off 30 minutes from time, James Brophy and James Dayton really made an impact on the game in my opinion, the two impact playmakers Orient needed when 1-0 down and at the time in a chance drought.
Player Ratings
Brill - 7
Ling - 6 (Lee 6)
Coulson - 8
Elokobi - 6
Widdowson - 6
Koroma - 6 (Dayton 7)
Clay - 7
Lawless - 8 (Brophy 7)
McAnuff - 6
Alabi - 5
Bonne - 6
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