Tonight I went down the O’s for the biggest cup tie in London this week. Leyton Orient were drawn at home in the 2nd round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Section. When I say the biggest cup tie, I need to be honest and mention the only competition seems to be Rymans League Cup ties.
Orient were hosting Coventry City. How times have changed.Its not so long ago that Leyton Orient were one of the longest continuous members of the lowest rung of the Football League whereas Coventry City were founder members of the Premier League and before that had been in the top flight of the Football League as well as winning the FA Cup in 1987. Tonight sees Orient top of League 1 and unbeaten in all 10 League games this season and Coventry are 18th in the same division on 7 points ( they have had 10 points deducted though).
Ten years ago, Leyton Orient would have had the ambition of avoiding a 5 goal hammering if they drew a team like Coventry in a cup tie, even at home. Tonight however, those who attended the game expected an Orient win. How times and expectations have changed.
The game itself was a strange sort of affair. There was lots of end to end football played by both side, but few actual efforts on target.According to Sporting Life there were only 5 on target efforts in the whole game. That would suggest the game was dull, nothing could be further from the truth.It was only the final ball that was lacking. Both sides had rested players, so its perhaps not surprising that on target efforts were at a premium.
The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy ties are decided on the night without the benefit of replays or extra time. As the game was 0-0 after 90 minutes, it goes straight to extra time. Orient winning 4-2 (only 8 penalties were taken). Coventry missed two of their four penalties.
It could be said by some that the picture below shows the only highlights of the game
I would suggest that is unfair as there were also 3 other floodlight pylons at the ground.
The crowd was around 2100 of which 489 were from Coventry which is a fantastic away support given the way they have been treated by their club. “Home” games are played at Northampton which is I believe an 80 mile round trip. The club was put into liquidation (hence the 10 point deduction in the league) and then bought back free of debt by the owners who put it into liquidation. Does that sound like a fair outcome? More on the events off field at Coventry can be found on the excellent 200% Blog and I will not seek to repeat them here.
So, for the 2nd time this season, Orient just scrape through in a home cup tie against Coventry City. Whilst the performance was not of the quality some Orient fans may have liked, it was another win against a side that most Orient fans have thought to be a much bigger/ better side. Before last year, it is a long time since Orient were in the same league as Coventry, let alone beating them.
For Orient its time to look ahead to the Southern Section Quarter Finals next month and back to the League in the meantime where another 22 points from the remaining 36 games should be enough to ensure their survival in League 1.
