Leyton Orient 1 Chesterfield Juan

Expectation being the mother of disappointment, a 1-1 draw with bottom team Chesterfield gave birth to a tiny bundle of boos at the full time whistle. There are any number of statistics that demonstrate just how bad a season the Spireites are having – a solitary away win, without a clean sheet in 22, 7 points adrift at the foot of the table. Before the game a new one cropped up, that Chesterfield had failed to score in the league against Orient in Leyton or Clapton for 102 years. That was unlikely to be their top riority though and that despite their desperate position Chesterfield would play for and be very happy with a draw – a scoreless draw being a bonus.

Tommy Lee : Will feature in the
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That ambition went south just before half time, David Mooney repaying Russell Slade’s decision to retain him in the starting line up despite Jamie Cureton breaking his duck at Carlisle. Lee Cook delivered a number of crosses across the front of Tommy Lee’s goal but the first time he aimed at the near post Mooney nipped in front Neal Trotman to deliver an expert finish. The game hadn’t been pretty but with the lead and an untested Lee Butcher a spectator, everything appeared to going to plan to a certain extent.

In the expectation that Chesterfield would come with a defensive mindset and with Dean Cox’s return from injury overlapping with the last 2 weeks of Lee Cook’s loan Slade re-shuffled his line up to supplement his attacking threat and accommodate his best players. But there wasn’t a person in ground who didn’t expect the Os to play with two wingers when they saw both Cox and Cook on the teamsheet. Instead Os lined up with Cox just inside Cook, Smith tucked in on the right and Spring sitting deep in more central position. An attacking line up but not a formation that would stretch an embedded defence.

Jimmy made it Juan Juan

The tactic wasn’t a complete failure – Cox was tidy and Cook remained a threat, although play between the two was stuttering rather confident. And if Slade really did believe two wingers was a step too far, not many fans would have taken the option of playing Laird instead of Cox in centre midfield. When that change was eventually made (with Laird coming in for Cook rather than Cox), it wasn’t long before the pros and cons of the alternative option where there for al to see. In his more familiar position Cox was a more constant threat to Chesterfield on the flank than Cook, albeit Cook provides a little bit more quality with his final ball. But within minutes of coming on Laird was caught standing off his man Jimmy Juan in the area as Jack Lester crossed into his path. Laird’s reaction was cumbersome, Juan having the time to turn and shoot past Butcher for the equaliser. It is a shallow fan who hopes someone scores just for the sake of a pun and I have a suitably shame face this morning. Juan scored one but Juan nearly made it two one, a spinning shot well saved by Butcher just a few minutes after the equaliser.

The full time whistle was met with a short but vocal collection of boos and criticism of Slade’s line up. But the Os didn’t play that badly and could have wrapped up three points if they had taken their chances in the first half. Orient didn’t open up their visitors as often as they might but the chances were there. Lisbie also had a great opportunity in the second half but shot straight at Lee. But instead of sitting back waiting to be picked up Chesterfield were full of effort, pressing Orient all over the field, which was enough to disrupt the flow of the home sides play and we failed to create as many chances as we might have liked. 

The line up, with the attacking threat focussed down the left, required Leon McSweeney to get forward from right back to balance things on the other flank. Indeed Os best scoring chance in the first half an hour came when Cox was able to switch play to the right and McSweeney immediately found Lisbie in the box. Unfortunatly his poachers effort was straight at the keeper. Other than that McSweeney was fully occupied and unable to get forward and the Os, not for the first time, looked an unbalanced team. Chesterfield weren’t able to completely contain Cook and Cox but knowing where the threat was always coming from certainly helped them.

Orient have to take points off of teams like Chesterfield if they are serious about the play offs but despite a morale sapping season Chesterfield haven’t given up and played with energy and spirit. They deserved both credit for that and a point for the effort they put in - a great example to any struggling side.