04 September 2010

Dagenham & Redbridge 2 Leyton Orient 0, 4/9/10

A game in which... Orient were so abysmal Russell Slade resorted to bringing on Adrien Patulea to try and salvalge something from the game. If my memory serves me correctly, the Romanian didn't touch the ball one single time during his five minutes on the pitch, which at least meant he couldn't spoon it off his knee into the path of an opposition striker. Still, there's no need to mock Patulea when the whole team played like they were doing a homage to Non-League Day: second to every ball, defensively all over the place and idea-less in attack.

Moment to savour... Football-wise, none, but it was at least mildly diverting to see chippy Hobbit-impersonator Dean Cox squaring up to the Daggers' gargantuan defender Will Antwi towards the end of the game.

Head in hands moment... Elliot Omozusi proved beyond doubt today that he isn't a left-back. He probably isn't a right-back either come to think of it, and was torn apart by Danny Green in the first half. It was a bad idea, then, to try to execute a Cryuff turn to get himself out of trouble 15 minutes in. Needless to say, it didn't work.

King for a day... It's a struggle to find an Orient player that performed well today, but Alex Revell at least looked vaguely like he might score. And on the plus side his hair was immaculate.

Boo boy... Matthew Spring. What the hell? Admittedly he has versatility in his corner-kicks - some sail harmlessly over everyone's heads, while others fail to beat the first defender - but Sean Thornton after eight pints of lager would have been more useful than Spring today. In fact, Sean Thornton has probably played on eight pints of lager.

In the dug out... Big Russ's PE teacher look felt very appropriate at a stadium that is more like a school recreation ground than the home of a League One side but he was unable to prevent his team playing with all the intelligence of an under-11 side.

You're supposed to be at home... The vocal contingent of the home fans appeared to consist of seven teenagers, who spent much of the game baiting the Os support. The rest of the Daggers' faithful were so quiet their minds must have been on West Ham's upcoming home fixture against Chelsea.

What would Martin Ling have done? Indicated to Dean Smith just before half-time that Plan A wasn't working, yet inexplicably send out exactly the same team with exactly the same tactics for the second half, before bringing on Efe Echanomi on 80 minutes and hoping for the best.

Going down? Well, Dagenham & Redbridge probably are and if Orient can't even give them a proper game they could be dropping with them.
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