Leyton Orient home: 21st Oct 2008

Preview track:

It's slightly sobering to be preparing for a game against Orient, all due respect to them, when elsewhere the focus will be on the Champions League and all the glitz and glamour that the premier European competition brings.................anyhow we are where we are so the sooner we gravitate back towards big European nights the better.  Tonight we face a team that have only mustered one miserly draw and 6 defeats from their last seven games and sit firmly in the relegation zone of League 1 so on paper it should by a relative breeze to plunder three vital points and re-ignite our early season promotion push.  If only life was as easy as that.............after Saturday's capitulation to Millwall confidence amongst the fans will be low and without an early goal to settle the restless natives the doom and gloom prophets in the kop will come to the fore.  On the positive side Telfer is in line for a recall after his injury to provide much needed solidity at the back and we can't possibly leave Robbo on the sidelines tonight so I expect to see our little Pieman tormenting the men from Brisbane Road for the entire match.

Although the defence rightly took a lot of flak for the weekend's performance the inital problems were rooted in midfield where we were bullied off of our normal passing game.  Macca needs to formulate a plan B as more teams will see this as a route to overturning Leeds.

On a lighter note it never ceases to both amaze & please me the lengths some fans go to in support of their team, despite the temptation to become a glory hunter and following the big four teams from a far.  Example one: on Saturday we met two exiled Southampton fans getting off the train at Doncaster who had been to their "home" game.  Despite their dire start to the season and the not insignificant distance to St Mary's they were remarkably cheerful as they disembarked onto Donny station.  Example two: a bit more surreal this........I was at the skip on Sunday morning disposing of the morning's DIY rubbish when I noticed a guy in a Reading top.  Now I expect to see the obvious red & blue tops in Selby, ffs, but not a Thames Valley fan in deepest North Yorkshire.  As it turns out he never misses a game, even from his distant base, so we swapped views on our weekend games.............."Gee you went to Millwall" he admired "You must be a brave man or stupid one of the two...I've only been there once and I just escaped with my life" he confided.  I  explained that all Millwall fans are misunderstood and there can be no safer place in football to go and watch your team proudly sporting your colours.  By the look on his face my northern humour was lost on our southern brethren!  It's not the first time and it won't be the last.

MOT