The Orient express hits the buffers as Leeds loom
Leyton Orient's dismal run amounts to a reversal of fortune just as unfathomable as their glorious early-season form.
Many of us will have harboured the guilty suspicion over the years that, much as we love to discuss and dissect it, football doesn't really make any sense.
Take Leyton Orient's current campaign. As mentioned here a few months back, last season's League One whipping-boys managed to lose an entire first XI during the close season and, as chairman Barry Hearn's bank balance isn't quite as bottomless as Thaksin Shinawatra's, were forced to go looking for bargain-basement replacements - loanees rather than Elanos. A promising collection of rough diamonds and rusty workhorses were duly unearthed but, as any teething-troubled manager will tell you, it takes time for so many new players to bed in, to gel, to get used to each other's games
Well, let's knock that old favourite on the head, shall we? While Sven City powered to the peak of the Premier League in the season's early weeks, Orient's ragbag army - hot favourites to finish rock bottom - went a step beyond. Heading into October the Eastenders were four points clear at the top with the best away record in the country, and had also banged a jagged nail into John Gregory's coffin with a League Cup giant killing at Loftus Road. After last season's 20th place, the management had been quietly hoping to break into the division's 'middle eight' this term. The punters just dreamed of safety. We'd all fallen for the gel business.
Then again, us O's fans have never really felt comfortable up there in the rarified air. Front-running just doesn't come naturally, and we invariably miss the goals on Big League Weekend (or whatever Sky's Football League highlights are called now) because we still turn on halfway through, just before they show the strugglers. A few weeks ago the whisper even went round that, really, we'd all be much happier dropping down a few places, skulking mid-pack like mid-80s Steve Cram, hoping for a late surge and a sneaky medal. It wasn't an unpopular theory.
Be careful what you whisper. What has actually transpired over the last five games is a reversal of fortune just as unexpected and unfathomable as our early-season form, and deeply embarrassing now that everyone's looking at us. Things started to go wrong when Hartlepool came to town, and stuffed us more thoroughly than the 4-2 scoreline suggests. We wrote it off as a blip, snatched a win at Bristol Rovers after going another couple of goals down, marched triumphantly off to Gillingham last Tuesday and lost 3-1. Well, we'd had two away games in a row, it was clearly due to tiredness.
Then came Swansea. We'd sneaked a vital point at their place at the tail-end of last season, which eventually kept us in the division and did likewise for them, putting a big dent in their play-off hopes. Quite possibly still smarting, they gave us a merciless hiding, 5-0, our worst home defeat since 1949-50. As we speak we're still joint-top, but with a minus-two goal difference, which must be some sort of record. Oh, and League Two's Dagenham and Redbridge beat us at home in the Johnstone's Paint on Tuesday, just to add a nice bit of symmetry.
Having bonded so quickly then, the side are suddenly falling to bits, for no discernible reason. The once-watertight defence has become worryingly sieve-like, and we've stopped scoring, despite lots of plaudits for our new strike force. They'd pooled their talents effectively at first - Adam Boyd is a cracking finisher, if painfully slow, while Wayne Gray is all power and pace, but lacks precision - only to drop off each others' radars in recent games.
Meanwhile, as we misplace the plot, the spectre of Leeds looms above; or rather, below. League One has been an odd affair this season, as the team really running away with it are still down in 12th. Orient go to Elland Road on Saturday, 11 places to the good but fully expecting to be royally thumped.
Then again, a year ago the O's travelled to the similarly ominous Nottingham Forest having been soundly thrashed in most of our early away games. We won 3-1, and Forest never really recovered. Football, you see: it just makes no sense.
Guardian Blogg
