Memories of Orient away..

Living near Reading, drove up for a game. Greeted by John Ward at turnstiles explain to a group of us that game was off because of frozen pitch. Back home listening to 606 where gasheads had called in saying it had taken over 2 hours to exit with refund...

Very nice club Orient and a good away day. Mine funniest memory was in the capital one cup game 4 or 5 years ago.. We scored really late on and I remember me running down the bottom of the stand celebrating giving it the big one... They scored before I got back to my seat.

Haha! Classic! That's the kinda stuff we all remember..

Ha ha I was at that. Zebroski scored for us and Lee Brown hit the post for what would have been a worldie...

Think Orient is the away ground I've been too most and seen some awful results there... including a 5-0 and 4-1 if memory serves in the late trollope / penny era. 

I knew someone who lived in the floodlight flats, but alas, you could only see one goal from their balcony

orient away 1979- the coach i was on , out of the 50- 45 got arrested in central london after the game-most bailed - a crazy day - i could name names but not a good idea obviously. We lost 2-1.

Full Moon in the East, and Destiny Denied

The full moon peered through wispy clouds over Brisbane Road on a pretty parky January night. A few hundred Gas gathered at one end of the main stand, and a sprinkling of Orient spread over the end stand and the rest of the main. Not really the kind of night when you invite some casual supporters, or your Mum, I thought.

Martin Ling was on the radio talking a good game. It was the first time since October that he’d both of his first-choice strikers available he said. It was going to be tight – the teams had 26 league draws between them so far this year, and though both would be looking to break the pattern, extra-time, penalties and thrills late into the night could be on the cards.

Rovers started the usual 11 with Manuel, His Imperial Majesty and the Aardvark-Dog not available. Rhino, Sooper Loowis Haldane and somebody else were on the bench. Orient started ex-Gas Lockwood, strikers Alexander and Steele, and 8 other blokes.

Things started spikily enough, with one of the O’s committing a dreadful tackle which was punished only by a yellow card. The Gasheads responded with venom, all surprisingly fired up by either lager or the cold.

Things soon became dull, so the Gasheads started singing ‘no crowd, s**t ground’ to pass the time. The shell of the new side stand looks quite impressive already, so it was probably a case of ‘sing it while we can’.

Things continued in a dull parks-football fashion for a long time. Rovers relied on THE TACTIC – knocking a long ball up the middle for Emperor Ming to flick on to Forrester. Once it almost worked, with Forrester clean through, but our captain was unable to get a shot away. Thorpedo then had a good crack from just outside the box, but it cannoned against the bar.

Orient had a broader palate of tactics, and used the channels well to create a series of good crosses. Lockwood was (irritatingly) effective down the left, and Rovers best response seemed to be a wide range of personal insults from the crowd.

The overall tone was dull though, with header-tennis making up a lot of the game. The jellied eels were strangely missing, but someone was frying onions at the back of the stand, and I found it hard to concentrate on the game. One of the O’s got injured, and their version of Nick Day used the break to announce the lucky winner of the fifty-pounds draw. ‘Fifty-pounds’ we all sang in awe, and some sport in the Orient section egged us on by waving his hugely lucky ticket.

So we were all dozing when play resumed, Steele played a good ball from out on the right, a second pass ensued, and Alexander buried it in the back of our onion bag.

It was almost half-time, and there were no clues as where a Rovers goal was going to come from. The O’s went in happy. Did they deserve the lead? – Not really, but it was a good goal.

Play resumed after the break and looked to be following the pattern of the first half. Then Hunt put a pass onto Dizzee Haircut, who controlled it alone and slotted a beautiful shot past the goalie. Lovely pass, lovely finish. The Gasheads had a good shout and warmed up. The Rovers players shook off the cold, Orient just looked shaken, and Rovers enjoyed their best 10 minutes of the match.

Just when it looked like Rovers could dominate, Orient pulled themselves back together and re-established their home-team midfield dominance. Steele was a particular nuisance, busying himself Beardsley-style as the playmaker in the hole.

Atkins took off Forrester and brought on Sooper Loowis around the hour mark – presumably thinking that with an hour of play still likely, young legs were needed. The Emporer took the captain’s armband, and Rovers settled down to defend.

With about 15 minutes left, Orient starting pushing to close the deal and played 3 up front. This created more space for Rovers on the counter, and Dizzee tried several threatening runs with the ball at his feet. Orient continued to use the channels and, though their crossing was less accurate than in the first half, their bloke with the long throw provided plenty of nervous moments for a well organised Rovers defence.

Rovers conceded 3 yellow cards, though all for offences which seemed much more innocuous than the Orient bookings of the first half. Maybe I had my blue-tinted glasses on, but it wasn’t until the last quarter hour that Rovers got any change out of the ref.

As Orient pushed ever harder, Sooper Loowis got the ball in space on the left, with two Rovers in support and only two Orient defenders in front. Sooper Loowis looked to have made a smart move by keeping the ball and running deep, but an O stuck out a foot which just clipped the ball, and Sooper Loowis didn’t look so special any more. It didn’t matter though, as on about the 90th minute he found a similar chance, but much closer to the Orient box. Sooper Loowis controlled the ball, knocked it into space, and found the perfect finish. Huzzah!

The Gasheads were still bouncing around, when a Rovers defender handballed it just outside the box. Oh s**t. But no – the free-kick clattered into the wall, and Rovers spent the next 3 or 4 minutes playing legitimate hoofball into the stands.

So it was 2nd division rubbish, but the bore draw of destiny was denied, and it was all well worth the journey. Did we deserve to win? Not really - but they were good goals.

As I was walking away from the ground, I heard an O on his mobile saying ‘we lost, but it was a pretty good game. A lot of the time, we played some good stuff, which makes a change, and it was close and enjoyable to watch’. Obviously hadn’t been to Brisbane Road, I thought.

Walking out of the ground after the 5-1 victory, I overheard two Orient fans chatting. It was the first time that I ever heard the sentence ...

"We're in the wrong division".

Haha! This is fantastic!

Not just the match, the occasion, the drama, the little sub plots.

Thanks to all whom contribute..

Is that why you're in Bangkok now