Disbelief. That’s the buzz word used in this article regarding the events at Leyton Orient Football Club on Tuesday 6th March 2012.
After spending much of my working day on Tuesday on the phone to Parcel Force asking why a package had been sent to Telford rather than Essex and then explaining to my Head Office why it was there and that we needed it for Thursday, work ended and a crazy day as an Orient fan ensued.
As I left my workplace I happened to have a quick glance at Facebook via my BlackBerry, my thoughts were that of disbelief as I’d seen a status from a fellow Orient fan saying; ‘Paul Rachubka? Oh no.’ Yet again, the curse of goalkeepers at Orient had taken place, this time with Marek Stech, who had picked up an ankle injury forcing Russell Slade to make Rachubka his sixth keeper of the season and twelth loanee of the campaign. What are we doing to these players in training?
I have to admit I wasn’t best pleased with the signing of Rachubka. Rachubka joined with a reputation of a ‘dodgy keeper’ to steal a line from a well known chart, for I remember the time earlier this season when he was embarrassingly hauled off by then Leeds United boss Simon Grayson and replaced by an 18 year old who was making his debut after a terrible performance by Rachubka. I jokingly said we’d get hammered to my Dad, how right I was!
Having seen Wycombe look classy and hammer Orient at Brisbane Road in August, having seen they have added Paul Hayes to a side that included John-Paul Pitman and Stuart Beavon, two players who impressed me back in August and that they’d recently scored 5 at their Adams Park home I really didn’t fancy Orient to win at Wycombe.
As the evening wore on and after spending much of my afternoon on here typing up articles, disbelief wore in again. This time as I read the team line ups via the club’s official Twitter page. Just looking at it I knew something was wrong. Scott Cuthbert and Jonathan Tehoue were missing. Just as I was refreshing the tweets marked with the ‘#lofc’ hashtag, I found myself staring at my screen with jaw dropping disbelief. Jonathan Tehoue was to sign for Swindon Town. Crazy. Just as the big Frenchman started to look fully fit and firing after a goal and assist in his last two home games, we’ve sold him.
7.45 come and the midweek version of Soccer Saturday was on my televison screen but that was quickly changed to the Arsenal – AC game in the Champions League. At this point I was already extremely annoyed with the Orient and my mood and blood pressure wasn’t helped after just seven minutes when Beavon put the Chairboys 1-0 up. After a quick refresh of Twitter, yep, you guessed it, Rachubka was at fault.
Thirteen crazy first half minutes killed the game off in the favour of the home side. Goals from Paul Hayes, Matt Bloomfield and Ben Strevens between the 26th and 39th minutes had the score reading ‘Wycombe 4-0 Orient’. Disbelief, yet again. I didn’t disregard Wycombe because of their league position but never did I expect Orient to have conceded 4 goals in 40 minutes.
At that point I was seething. This was totally not good enough. From being eleven points clear of the relegation zone little over a month ago, we sat six points above the dreaded dotted line at half time. Two second half goals from Orient from Matt Spring and Marc Laird restored some pride and made the scoreline look a bit more respectful but the damage had been done.
People tweeted their dismay and anger and proclaimed it to be the worst peformance since the days of Paul Brush, others demanded their money back and some even began questioning their faith in Russell Slade.
For a start, selling Téhoué, why? The man has just started to look the part and has scored and set up goals in his last two home games but we’ve sold him. I can only imagine that he’s fallen out with Russell Slade, I can’t see any other logical reason why he’s departed. Its not even as if he’s the worst striker we have, David Mooney is out of favour, Kevin Lisbie is in the middle of a barren run and Calvin Andrew looks as useful as a chocolate tea cup.
The departure of Jamie Cureton could well come back and bite us on the ‘arris as well. I was all for Cureton leaving but selling him to a team in a similar position to us is criminal if Cureton manages three or four goals for Exeter.
Square pegs, round holes. They’re the tactics employed by Russell Slade. Terrell Forbes is never ever a fullback, nor is Scott Cuthbert a full back or Jimmy Smith a winger, Leon McSweeney isn’t a natural right back and Dean Leacock isn’t a natural midfielder. But what else can be done when your slowly selling off all your assets and replacing them with temporary replacements?
I’m totally disillusioned with all things Leyton Orient, never before have I felt this low following us. I’ve even questioned whether I’ll turn up a week on Saturday to watch the Brentford game.
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