Official Matchday thread - King of the ling

[redbullzeye]

Just got back from the game

Orient were shite with a capital SHITE. We were a bit better them but really didn't create too many great chances...Coxy missing the best of the lot. It was a sitter. People moaned about Zaaboub coming on, but it was the only sensible option. People moaned at Sturrock, but he worked his arse off.

When we got the ball out wide and whipped crosses in (especially from McNamee) we looked really dangerous, but for some reason Malpas changed it to 4-3-3 and we lost the width and therefore all effectiveness. I've not criticised Malpas at all until now but taking McNamee off was the strangest decision I've seen in a long time.
Their penalty was a definite penalty, and some slack defending over a 10 minute period is what cost us tonight. No complaints about the referee, no complaints about effort/passion/desire, just wasn't our night.

Thanks for that Reevsey - I wanted to hear from someone who went to the game  :goodpost:

[reeves4england]

Should also add, Cox's miss was one of those that you really can't believe he's missed. He should have scored it 10 times out of 10, and he looked absolutely gutted at the end of the game.

Just before anybody inevitably starts slagging off his attitude like...

[redbullzeye]

A bit like the miss against dirty leeds! He'll come good - I watched Jan Aage not score for 20 odd matches then all hell broke loose.

[flammableBen]

What I don't get is why malpas doesn't just press the tactics button, right click on our wingers heads and drag out some lines to make them run up and down more, also ticking the cross ball lots box. Maybe selecting the closing down button on some of our midfielders.

[swindonbob]

Just got back....

We played OK first half - or in fact Orient were very poor in the first half. Looked like a bit of a flukey goal we scored, but couldnt clearly see it. To be honest we held it together well for the rest of the half.

I imagine that at half time Malpas said in a very dreary voice "Keep it going lads" - as opposed to some real motivational talking from Orient, as they came out well up for it and we looked a mess. Definate penalty for them. Also about a minute later it looked like Ifil handballed it off the line, but i think the ref bottled giving them another penalty in such a short space of time. Their second goal came soon after, and our defence looked very shabby.

I never thought we genuinely looked like getting back in the game - but Cox's miss was unbelievable! On his own in the 6 yard box and managed to somehow scuff it over! He looked proper gutted at full time though.

McNamee looked fairly dangerous - he wasnt skipping past players so freely as he did against Huddersfield, but the speed of his feet is brilliant - one little piece of skill he did in front of us away fans was quality! Which is why i have no idea why Malpas took him off - he did look like he was one of the few who could have provided something extra tonight.

Other irritants - traffic in London was typically bad - and although it was nice driving past Wembley, i thought that they lit up the arch every night?

The fickleness of the fans yet again - after last week, when Brez was a bit indecisive this week, some bloke starts shouting "Brez your shit, get off the pitch" and going mental. No doubt bloke was from the same "Smith Slagging" group.

Also the man who went mental at the us for singing "we're the right side/left side over here....". He turned around and started shouting "SHUT UP, YOUR SINGING AN OXFORD SONG" and getting really wound up about it!!! It was quite entertaining!

All in all, another ground visited i guess.

[STFC_Chris]

Good first half, not so good second half... seems to be a recurring theme these days.

Zaaboub on the right wing didn't work, he is so one-footed every time he got in a position to cross he had to check back and try to get it on his left. I thought Zaaboub at left back with Comminges on the right wing would have made more sense, Zaaboub looked pretty handy playing left back earlier in the season.

Taking McNamee off really was an odd decision, he had been our best outlet and attacking option, Malpas took a fair bit of abuse for it. As for Cox's miss, probably the less said the better... as reeves said you'd expect him to put that away every time, but no point dwelling on it.

And finally, "We can see you washing up!", fantastic!

[axs]

Just got back from the game

Orient were shite with a capital SHITE. We were a bit better them but really didn't create too many great chances...Coxy missing the best of the lot. It was a sitter. People moaned about Zaaboub coming on, but it was the only sensible option. People moaned at Sturrock, but he worked his arse off.

When we got the ball out wide and whipped crosses in (especially from McNamee) we looked really dangerous, but for some reason Malpas changed it to 4-3-3 and we lost the width and therefore all effectiveness. I've not criticised Malpas at all until now but taking McNamee off was the strangest decision I've seen in a long time.
Their penalty was a definite penalty, and some slack defending over a 10 minute period is what cost us tonight. No complaints about the referee, no complaints about effort/passion/desire, just wasn't our night.

Thanks for that Reevsey - I wanted to hear from someone who went to the game  :goodpost:

I went to the game, we lost, coxy missed a sitter. thats about all I have to report.

[Simon Pieman]

Nobody seems drunk enough  :|

[reeves4england]

Nobody seems drunk enough  :|

Well most were quite merry when we got to the ground at 7.20pm but that was a long long time ago

"We can see you washing up" was classic  

[flammableBen]

you should have stayed in the pub.

[neville w]

Not too many people seem to have mentioned the fact that Brezovan was back and we still conceded two goals. No comment about any "wonder saves" either.

[Luci]

Brez did actually make a few good saves and our shoddy defending didn;t help.  I thought he did well considering how bloody windy it was.

Gutted for Coxy and his miss, could tell hes lacking confidence.  Full time he pretty much had to be consoled by one or two of his team mates.

MacNamee showed no signs of tiring at all so why he came off is beyond me.  His bit of showboating in front of us though was quality.

Leyton Orient are possibly one of the worst bunch of fans I've seen.  Crap home support.  

I'm still utterly amazed at the people in front of us screaming (yet again) abuse at Blair Sturrock.  Worked his socks off again.

I can't really be bothered to say much more about the game as its pretty much been summed up in the above posts however discipline is an issue and needs to be resolved during the summer.

Game aside, good day out, some great pubs and a good laugh.

[janaage]

Not too many people seem to have mentioned the fact that Brezovan was back and we still conceded two goals. No comment about any "wonder saves" either.

Actually Nev Brez did make a couple of good saves, his decision making was very good and all in all looked better than Smith has in recent weeks.

As for the match itself well an Orient fan I was talking to in their club shop after the game said "I can't believe we got away with that".  Which summed it up, R4E's summary was spot on they dominated in the 10 mins at the start of the 2nd half, apart from that we were on top for most of the game.

Malpas taking off our most dangerous player was crazy, not a subsititution that'll endear him to the fans.  

As for Coxy's miss.......   probably the worst miss of the season, and he knew it.  I wonder what the fans reaction would have been if Blair had missed the chance.

[Ardiles]

A couple of observations from last night.

As others have said, when we went wide we were dangerous...but too often we playing a narrow game down the middle and it wasn't effective.  If Malpas can't see that, he should come and sit up in the stands with the rest of us for 15 or 20 minutes.  It's blindingly obvious.  The periods when we were trying to push down the middle coincided with those that Orient's midfield had most of the possession.  I have to confess some bias, because I've always preferred seeing us play wide (with a Mark Walters, Nicky Summerbee or even Beauchamp on the wing) - but that's how I see it.

Secondly, Blair Sturrock and Anthony McNamee - take a bow.  These two worked their b*llocks off for STFC last night.  I might be getting a bit middle aged now, but I can forgive a poor result if I see the players sweating for the cause like that.  McNamee's trickery in front of our stand at the end of the second half was superb - and when he was finally dispossessed, his reaction was even better.  He didn't even try to acknowledge the cheers from our stand...he just threw his hands up in disgust and got stuck right back in.  How many times have we complained about players not being arsed?  Well done, lads.  Keep it up.

And finally, Orient's ground.  New ground for me, and now vying with Loftus Road for position of my favourite London ground.  I imagine it would be even better if it had a few more fans in it (and if the home fans decided to make some noise).  Expect we'll be back there next year, which is fine by me.

[janaage]

1. Leyton Orient are possibly one of the worst bunch of fans I've seen.  Crap home support.  

2. I'm still utterly amazed at the people in front of us screaming (yet again) abuse at Blair Sturrock.  Worked his socks off again.

3. Game aside.

1.  LO fans make Wycombe fans seem like the most intimidating fans in the world.

2.  That wasn't us!!  

3. I said that on the way back to the car, even though we lost it really wasn't a bad performance.