Crawley Town 1-0 Leyton Orient

Nicky Ajose scored the winner for Crawley yesterday as Orient crashed again, failing to create many chances in the process.

This defeat leaves Orient without a win or a point this season and with a record that stands at three wins in the past twenty-two games. Those records were enough for the Orient fans to turn on manager Russell Slade at the final whistle with cries of ‘Slade Out’ heard from the terraces of the Broadfield Stadium.

Within the opening minute, Orient tested their opponents when poor defending by the home side allowed Martin Rowlands to drive in the shot from outside the box forcing a save from Paul Jones.

Ryan Allsop, picked due to an injury to Jamie Jones, made some confident saves in the opening period in only his second game of professional football.

The first half saw Orient have far more of the ball than the home side but Orient had no cutting edge in the final third of the pitch to create any solid chances.

Ajose had a chance to put the Red Devils ahead far earlier when he missed an open goal. A long ball over the top of the Orient defence was chased by Ajose and Allsop, Allsop missed his chance to clear the ball, allowing Ajose to get a shot in. However, Ajose was being chased down by Orient captain Nathan Clarke and the defender did enough to put Ajose off.

Crawley were dominating the second period, they had far more chances than Slade’s outfit who looked off the pace, had no bottle and no clue on how to test the opposition keeper, never mind actually grabbing an equaliser.

It seemed to be a matter off time before Crawley would score and that time came eighteen minutes before the end when a ball from sub Michael Jones split the Orient defence, left Leon McSweeney lifeless and allowed Ajose to slide the ball under Allsop to the joy of the home crowd.

The game wore on and Orient fans had enough and Ajose’s goal seemed to be the straw that broke that camels back. ‘Slade Out’ was the cry as long ball tactics, players playing with no fight and 4-5-1 have clearly angered fans.

Slade went on to make some clearly disgusting comments after the game claiming fans needed to be more patient and how they (the fans) had short memories.


Orient; Ryan Allsop; Leon McSweeney, Gary Sawyer, Ben Chorley, Nathan Clarke; Anthony Griffith, Marc Rowlands (Jimmy Smith), Moses Odubajo (Kevin Lisbie), Dean Cox, Lee Cook (David Mooney); Michael Symes.