Leyton Orient - As Seen On TV

On New Year’s Eve Leyton Orient end the year in much the same way they began it – live on television. Last season saw the Os appear live on television an unprecedented five times, including the closest they’ve been to terrestrial TV, when Welsh language S4C aired the Fourth Round FA Cup tie against Swansea. It is surprising that is the closest Orient have come to being live on free-to-air TV considering the two games against Arsenal the followed the victory against Swansea. Presumably some fine contractual detail led to ITV screening the re-arranged Fifth Round game between Manchester City and Aston Villa – it isn’t like ITV would just grab the chance to show one of the top four clubs regardless of how appealing the tie is, is it? Given the outcome ITV probably made the right decision and ESPN ended up being stitched up by Orient for a second time, as any neutral interest in game was over by half time. Earlier in the competition ESPN screened the dire Second Round game at Droylsden – a game that probably wouldn’t have gone ahead in the frozen conditions were the cameras not there. It was bad enough that ESPN decided against showing the replay on that occasion. It isn’t clear at what point amongst the ten goals and four sendings off during the replay that the ESPN Director of Programming was fired.

BSB - not a cracker

It is a sign of how far televised football has come that even S4C, a channel that regularly shows programmes that boast more presenters than viewers, put on a far more professional show than Orient’s first outing live on our screens. I say ‘ours’ but unless you were one of the rare people to have a ‘squarial’ stuck on the side of your house or knew someone who did, then you probably didn’t see it. You didn’t miss much as Orient ground out a tedious 0-0 draw at Layer Road against Colchester United, who were then in the Conference. These were the days when 5 blokes in Santa Claus hats represented the height of fan humour and so were featured going in to and coming out of each commercial break. BSkyB’s idea of post match analysis was a seemingly never ending ‘interview’ with Frank Clark and Frank Carson (whisky in hand) on the pitch, long after everyone had gone home/switched off. The Two Franks Show proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back as British Satellite Broadcasting went bust in the same month and Sky established it's dominance.

The O’s were back in each of the next two seasons, breezing past West Bromwich Albion the following season and crashing out against Reading the year after that. A mate did lend me a video of the Reading game but it also had The Camomile Lawn on it and I don’t think I ever got around to watching the actual game. Or giving the video back. On the subject of wearing videos thin by continually rewinding and re-watching the same 2 minute section, I have repeatedly viewed the preview of the Orient v West Brom FA Cup tie more than any other Orient feature. It featured an ‘Insiders Guide’ to Leyton Orient, underscored by The Clash’s Rock The Casbah. As to why, your guess is as good as mine. Presumably someone thought that London Calling was too obvious and skipped to the next song on a Greatest Hits CD. Amongst ‘useful’ information you might want to know about the club (including, helpfully, the office telephone number) were appearances by Paul Heald and Ricky Otto. It is hard to work out what is most cringeworthy – Heald’s “Yo, this is Leyton Orient” or Otto’s unintelligible rap. I've watched it many times and my best guess is “Cease and [something that rhymes with muscle] and don’t move a muscle, this is Leyton Orient”. Judge for yourself - a must watch for anyone who misses the terraces and floodlight pylons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K96ufq0OcI&feature=g-upl&context=G2daf979AUAAAAAAAAAA

Since then the ubiquity of live football has meant it is inevitable that most clubs get a semi-regular outing on the box, to the point that it isn’t as exciting as it once was. Until last season’s cup run that usually meant early round games in the League Cup against a minor Premiership team's reserve side. However, Saturday’s game is the third time in as many seasons that Sky have shown Orient clash with Charlton in the league. If you’re looking for omens they aren’t good, each team previously winning on their opponents ground. Charlton come to Brisbane Road 7 points clear at the top of the table and they have won in their two previous visits to Leyton since they were relegated, including on Sky at the beginning of last season. That was the first of two 3-1 victories against the O’s last season. The only time Orient have avoided defeat against the Addicks was in the televised victory at The Valley in January 2010 when Scott McGleish’s diving header was enough for a 1-0 win.  

Charlton’s last defeat was way back on 15 October when they were defeated by a single goal against Stevenage (their only league defeat of the season), following which they have gone on an 11 game unbeaten run to consolidate their top placing. They are the highest away scorers in the division coupled with a miserly defence that has conceded only 10 goals in 12 games on their travels.  Bradley Wright-Phillips is the obvious threat with 14 goals so far, but he isn't the only threat, with 12 different players having netted in the league so far.

Orient haven’t done too badly themselves sharing the goals around but they lack the big scoring forward and one can only hope that Kevin Lisbie follows McGleish’s example and scoring a winning goal against his old team and taking his tally beyond 6. Rumours of a Dean Cox return seem optimistic, with the winger only returning to training in the last few days but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t on the bench.  The biggest blow for the O’s is the premature return of Tony Craig to Millwall, who have curtailed his loan spell early. For the second time in as many months the Os find themselves having to quickly replace a quality left back. Expect Cuthbert to remain at right back whilst McSweeney’s return from suspension will see him filling in at left back again.

Common sense suggests a Charlton victory – clichés and straw clutching like “you can never tell in a derby game” and “we always raise our game against the big sides” give hope. And if it is all over by half time you can always challenge Jamie Jones to a game of Mario Karts on his Ninetendo DS - I hear he's not very good.

Commercial break - Orient finally get on ITV

New Year New Blog

New Years resolution number one is to set up and maintain a blog. I realise that blogs are like, so last decade but surely there is always space for ramblings about East London's favourite football team? There are already some good ones out there but it isn't as if Orient are overwhelmed with things being written about us, so hopefully there is room for something new. And at least I went to the trouble of coming up with a new pun for the title and didn't call it the Orient Express or the Os Zone.

So please give it a go and bear with me as I find my way through. Hopefully it'll be of some interest to Os fans. The aim will be to put something up midweek and then again on Sunday - hopefully that won't be the first of many broken New Year's resolutions.