Come on feel the noise was the message from Slade’s Noddy Holder but it is now time for Orient very own Slade, hat wearing Russell, to feel the noise after fans voiced their discontent after seeing their side beaten again yesterday.
Yesterday’s defeat at newly promoted Crawley Town was Orient’s fourth straight defeat and Orient’s record now stands at three wins in the past twenty-two games, a record reminisant to that of a team staring relegation in the face.
Slade’s comments have disgusted me. I’m seething at what has been said by our hat waving leader as he turned on the fans who’ve had enough of his dull football. Any last ounce of respect and support I had for the man has vanished after yesterday.
Orient fans have ‘short memories’ according to Slade. He added that he ‘bought in £2.3m’, that the club was ‘going through a transition’ and that ‘it would be nice if they (us fans) could stay behind the team’. Disgusting comments from the clueless one.
By short memories, I believe Slade is commenting on the 2010/11 season where we finished in 7th place in League One and reached the Fifth Round of the FA Cup after a poor start. That season was unforgettable and will go down as one of the most enjoyable for many years. However, you cannot live off something that is 18 months old.We started last season poorly and the fans stuck behind Slade whilst we experienced our worst start ever. Never once was there even the slightest hint of discontent amongst the Brisbane Road faithful.
The 10/11 season saw us play a crisp passing style of the game but midway through last season Slade turned to the ugliest form of the game, in my eyes. 4-5-1 was complimented with a dull long ball style of football that was horrible to watch.
Yes, we were unlucky last season. The injuries to goalkeepers and left backs especially, were terribly unlucky. We lost key players in Charlie Daniels and Stephen Dawson who left for transfer fees after making it clear to the club that they weren’t willing to sign new contracts for the club. Losing players like those was always going to cause problems as replacing them was always going to be a huge task.
The style of football wasn’t the worst of it. The players and their lack of effort was too much for us to stomach as we dropped down the table quicker than Katie Price’s knickers. The likes of Ryan Dicksen, Soloman Taiwo and Calvin Andrew were allegedly the answers to our troubles. The players had no fight in them and that was hard to watch. We’re Leyton Orient and we’ve had some poor seasons in the last decade but in those squads have been people like Dean Smith, Matthew Lockwood and John Mackie who would fight for 90 minutes. We’d lose games with those three in the squad but we as fans could come away from games knowing that the players had given their all.
We managed to stay up last season and it wasn`t through our own work. A horrendous defeat at Hartlepool United meant Orient needed to go into the final game of the season to confirm their survival but that was stopped by Alan Judge of Notts County. Judge`s late show for County against Wycombe Wanderers was enough to send Wycombe down and confirm our survival. We`d rolled over and had our bellies tickled like we had all season and was only saved by the work of someone with no connection to the club. That moment that earnt our survival really summed our season and our squad up. Not one of that crop of players was good enough or had the fight to take the season by the scruff of the neck and keep the club in the division.
The pre-season break saw players depart and Slade went about restructuring his squad. Highly experienced players like Nathan Clarke and Michael Symes were signed along with the likes of Gary Sawyer, Anthony Griffith and Mathieu Baudry. I and many others were willing to give Slade another chance.
I have seen three games this season and have seen three different formations. How can this provide any sort of continuity? How can the players know what they’re doing? The Charlton game saw us play a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield and we matched the Championship side for 120 minutes and I left South London thinking that Slade had gone about making changes. So you can imagine my disbelief and frankly, disgust that we played a 4-5-1 against Stevenage. That game was like rewinding six months and watching us aimlessly hoof the ball upfield towards Calvin Andrew, this time with David Mooney in Andrew’s place. I attended yesterday’s debacle and witnessed us attempt to play a 4-2-3-1 formation. If we’re changing every week, how do players know what their role is or gel when they’re playing different positions every game?
Yesterday and the Stevenage game before that was like watching last season over again. Balls were aimed long without thinking and there was no cutting edge. As we found last campaign and have witnessed again this season, without a cutting edge, we aren’t shooting and if we’re not even bothering to shoot, we definitely won’t win games.
Why do we go to Football on a Saturday? To get away from our troubles of work and to be entertained will be the answer for most people. What we are served up by the clueless Slade is not entertaining in the slightest. This is all Slade`s work though. He was the man who assembled a squad in the 2010/11 season that could match anyone on our day with our entertaining passing brand of football. A year on and Slade had turned that squad into one that looked clueless and not up to the level of League One due to the style of play that was insisted on by our manager.
Time is up for the hat waving dunderhead. There are no signs that Slade can turn this around and with yesterday`s comments, he`s alienated a hell of a lot of fans. I have train tickets to Swindon next week but I now have no interest in watching another game whilst Slade is in charge. Relegation is nailed on if this goes on much longer.
Slade Out.
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