Kevin Lisbie hammered home a fantastic strike deep into injury time to earn Orient a deserved point against a Sheffield United side aided by the man in black, Oliver Langford.
Langford tried to prevent the game from flowing and was giving bizarre decisions against both sides, perhaps his worst, handing a red card to Charlie Daniels for an alleged foul on Lee Williamson. Langford was the only person on earth who saw Daniels take two feet off the ground, as proven by pictorial evidence from Daniels’ Twitter account.
Russell Slade named the same side that had beaten Bury at Brisbane Road a week previous and Danny Wilson’s Blades turned up in East London backed by a large following for their third game in six days.
The first half was a scrappy affair and although both sides had decent half chances, Sheffield United were the better team and only Lee Butcher and the Orient defence kept the score level at the break.
The second half was a fiery affair, yet unbelievably reffed by Langford. Twenty-six fouls, five yellow cards, a red card and a mass brawl on the final whistle were the talking points in the ‘Langford Show’ in the second half. It said a lot about the referee’s ability when Orient fans were chanting ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ when a Stephen Quinn cross was deflected behind Quinn and off for an obvious looking corner from the outstretched leg of Dean Cox yet Langford saw fit to give Orient a goal kick.
Orient were down to 10 men when Charlie Daniels won the ball ahead of Williamson but Langford saw it as a two footed tackle and showed Daniels the way to the tunnel, much to the disgust of majority in attendance.
It seemed that the Blades and Langford were heading home with a win in the bag when a poorly defended cross was turned in by Chris Porter with six minutes left of normal time. The travelling fans were in histeria that they’d scored despite both teams having equal amounts of pressure on the oppositions goal.
Orient pressed and set about making waives of pressure on the Blades goal and a Dean Cox free kick was the start of the late leveller. Cox’s free kick was punched by Steve Simonsen, but only as far as Kevin Lisbie who smashed home the equaliser to send the Orient crowd wild and grab Orient their deserved point.
Player Ratings
12 – Lee Butcher
Growing in confidence and experience with every game, he’s a good keeper and on current form, would run Jamie Jones very close for a starting shirt.
14 – Leon McSweeney
Solid, unspectacular but he’s doing his job.
11 – Charlie Daniels
Unfairly sent off. We’ll miss him the three games he’ll have to sit out.
5 – Scott Cuthbert
I really didn’t rate him early season but he’s settled in and now used to how we play and looks a good buy.
6 – Terrell Forbes
Hugely under-rated in our run last season and again this season.
26 – Tom Clarke (Off at HT for Laird)
Must have been his last game for us in his loan spell, he looked very good in the first half.
16 – Matt Spring (Off for Porter)
Deserves an honourable mention for Man of the Match, his passing was fantastic.
7 – Dean Cox
Really doing well in our unbeaten run, long may it continue.
8 – Stephen Dawson
Captain Fantastic is in everything, one of the best buys in the last 10 years, surely.
39 – David Mooney (Off for Omozusi)
Unfortunately taken off after Daniels’ red card. Looks useful, has some great touches.
9 – Kevin Lisbie
Sir Kevin Lisbie must be sat in Russell’s office on Monday with a contract. Great player.
17 – Marc Laird
Steady.
15 – George Porter
Bags of pace, perhaps could have come on earlier.
Did little wrong, but this could be a blessing in disguise. If Elliot makes a fist at left back, we could see him at left back, McSweeney at the right and Cox and Daniels out wide in midfield. Moist.
Lovely to see you bag an equalizer, Orient!