A game in which... Orient treated fans to a white-knuckle ride of a performance. Albeit a white-knuckle ride that has so many potentially fatal design flaws it's a miracle anyone makes it to the end alive. What I'm saying here by way of tortuous theme park analogy is that this was a rip-roaring win, made all the more thrilling by the reckless disregard for the basics of defending that may have given Sutton a few more goals of their own had they been able to shoot properly.
Anyway, never mind all that: let's rejoice in the occasion and be confident that with performances like this we should be capable of finishing just a handful of points off the play-off places.
Moment of magic... When Kenny Jackett sought to sign Harry Smith' he probably wasn't thinking "This is the guy I need to hammer a left-footed volley into the top corner from outside the box." (He was thinking "This fucking lump will probably nick a couple if we get in the mixer enough.") More fool Jackett because Smith's goal today was almost transcendental in its beauty. If you see three wise men and some shepherds turn up at Brisbane Road, you'll know why.
Praise be... Let's take a moment to herald Alex Mitchell, shall we? It's quite something to be singled out for the nickname of "Meathead" at Millwall – a bit like a tower of giraffes deciding to dub one of their own "Lofty" or a member of the Royal Family going by the moniker "Posho". This is a man who has never knowingly controlled a football when the option of booting it over the stadium roof is on. But note this: Meathead is never the one catastrophically gifting goals by trying to do drag backs in his own penalty area or the one bemusedly watching a ball fly over his head to an oncoming opponent. And I'm all for that.
In the dug out.. Orient have now scored more goals than any other team in League Two, which is quite something given Kenny Jackett's alleged negativity. In fact, the former Portsmouth manager has come up with a pretty sophisticated attacking ploy, which is to solely work towards putting the ball out of play on the right hand side and hoping Tom James's medium-length throw-ins do the trick. It actually worked for the first goal today. Also credit to Jackett for seeing sense and reinstating Dan Kemp into the starting eleven of late, for his buzzing creativity was behind much of today's attacking intent.
Dove sono adesso? Or "Where are they now?" in English, a continuing series in which I investigate the whereabouts of some of the key figures from the Becchetti era. This time: Alessandro Angelieri. Now, if we put the former CEO's infamous and jaw dropping ineptitude aside, by all accounts Big Al was a pretty nice guy. So as long as he isn't involved in important things like medical procedures or aviation then I think we can all wish him well. Except, well, he is now actually involved in things like medical procedures and aviation. I'd write more, but I just need to cancel a couple of flights...
