15 December 2012

Leyton Orient 1 Scunthorpe United 3, 15/12/12

A game in which... Orient were flatter than a flatfish that's just been sat on by Jonathan Tehoue. The first half was entirely uneventful; the second had events - unfortunately those events were mostly Scunthorpe goals.

Still, the mixture of luck, fluke, accident and miracle that allowed Orient to win eight games in a row was always going to come to an end at some point. What's important is that today's result doesn't send us spinning in the opposite direction.

Moment of magic... Difficult to pick out a moment of magic in a game in which Orient's only shot on target was a penalty. Too many players had an off day today - Rowlands, James, Cook, Cox for starters - so let's instead celebrate the South Stand fan dressed up as Santa who was ejected from the ground. Apparently it was for shouting "Sleighed out". (Blame Bill Badger for that joke, not me.)

Moment of madness... The point at which the entire Orient team apparently thought to themselves, "Well, if there's any time to take a quick nap, it's now" just as Scunthorpe took the free-kick that resulted in their second goal. Indeed, so sluggish were the players throughout the match that if you'd flung some salt at them after the final whistle they would have shrivelled up and died.

Knight in shining armour... All hail the League One Player of the Month, Kevin Lisbie. The former Charlton man hadn't exactly been setting the world on fire for the few seasons before he joined Orient but he seems to have found his mojo in E10. And while at times he must feel like Noel Gallagher trying to jam with The Saturdays, long may his form continue.

Pantomime horse... Since it's panto season it was somehow appropriate that every time Gary Sawyer looked around in search of who he was supposed to be marking, the answer was invariably "He's behind you." Yes, the left back was in dire need of a fairy godmother to tell him "You shall go to the ball" - as it was, his performance was uglier than any ugly sister. Oh no it wasn't! Oh yes it was.

In the dug out... Thanks to his appearance at the AGM last week we now have an insight into Russell's mind. "Marc Laird wasn't the player I thought he was" he admitted, for example, suggesting perhaps he accidentally brought the midfielder to Brisbane Road when actually trying to hire a plumber. He also revealed he has a love/hate relationship with Dean Cox - Russell loves Cox; Cox hates Russell.

Meanwhile on Twitter... This week Dean Cox gave us a unique insight into his domestic affairs and the work he's doing to promote women's rights. "Get home and cook some dinner" he demanded of his girlfriend, who replied "Sorry, who do you think your talking to? you can have toast". But toast is hardly going to satisfy a growing lad like Deano (I presume he's still growing, right?). "Won't be living here much longer with that attitude" he tweeted back before issuing a plaintive - and hungry - cry to his sister: "Is mum up?"

Statto corner... The last time an Orient striker notched up nine goals before Christmas - as Kevin Lisbie has done - was when Steve Watts broke into the club secretary's office in 2001 after a night on the town with Jordan and credited eight of Carl Griffiths' strikes to himself.