Leyton Orient 1 Huddersfield Town 3, 3/4/12

A game in which... Orient conceded three goals so soft that if you bagged them up you could flog 'em as a new brand of ultra-fluffy cotton wool. That aside, as in Saturday's game against Charlton, the Os did enjoy some spells of possession, but once again the inability to turn this into anything like a meaningful attack means that Russell Slade's side literally have no hope of winning matches at the moment. Indeed, the manager seems to be so lacking in ideas that if Lionel Messi were to turn up and offer his services, Slade would simply shrug his shoulders and mutter, 'Hey, maybe you can repaint the changing rooms?'

Moment of magic... Just the one, Matt Spring's goal. Orient have a long-standing tradition of endangering low-flying pigeons with their goal attempts from balls that break loose on the edge of the box (Andy Harris, I'm looking at you) but tonight the former Charlton man expertly brought the ball down and fired it into the net.

Paul Rachubka

Moment of madness... Pretend goalkeeper Paul Rachubka was back to his old tricks tonight, in particular for Huddersfield's second goal. Though he might have expected the professional footballers in front of him to adequately defend an innocuous throw-in, that's no excuse to let the ball squirm under him as if he was trying to use two lumps of butter to apprehend an eel.

Knight in shining armour... Ryan Dickson, whose battling display could herald an innovative new era of tactics at Brisbane Road where left-footed players play on the left-hand side of the pitch.

Pantomime horse... Not that he was particularly worse than anyone else, but the ongoing ineffectiveness of Marc Laird is symbolic of the malaise in Russell Slade's team. The manager has thrown numerous players into central midfield this season - Taiwo, Reed, Clarke, Leacock, for example - without much success and the lack of a player to get on the ball and drive forward (like, say, Stephen Dawson) is surely a big reason behind Orient's inability to create anything in the final third of the pitch this season.

In the dug out... Perhaps the most telling point of the evening was a full two minutes after Kevin Lisbie had come on for Marc Laird, when Matt Spring and Jimmy Smith were still asking Russell Slade what revised formation they were supposed be playing. The answer, of course, was the classic '4-no-width-Coxy-runs-anywhere-but-lump-it-to-Moons-and-hope-for-the-best' formation that's served the Os so well this season.

Huddersfield's team spirit

A word on the opposition... Huddersfield spent much of the match bickering between themselves like a bunch of teenage girls who'd all accidentally turned up to the school disco wearing the same Top Shop dress. Not that this stopped them easing to victory over Orient - as they did last season - with the help of prize weapon Jordan Rhodes.

Meanwhile on Twitter... Orient's resident women's rights campaigner and ardent feminist George Porter was up to his old tricks this week, tweeting: 'The awkward moment when a girl dosent pick the iron in monopoly! ha' to his followers. Next week: George shows his support for animal welfare by decapitating his cat.

Lesson for the day... THERE ARE NO MORE LESSONS! Really, with the squad we've now got at our disposal our options to change anything are gone it's hard to see where the next point is going to come from. It almost makes you wish Jonathan Tehoue could come back. Almost.

Charlton Athletic 2 Leyton Orient 0, 31/3/12

A game in which... the Orient team had presumably forgotten to put their clocks forward the weekend before, since when Charlton kicked the game off at 3pm, the Os were still ambling round the pitch in a gentle warm-up. Russell Slade's team did finally wake up 15 minutes in and had a few sporadic spells of possession throughout the game, but possession doesn't win football matches, otherwise Barcelona would be the best team in the world. Oh, hang on...

Moment of magic... He leapt like a salmon, he was fearless in the face of danger... No, not a new comic book superhero who tries to save the world by fumbling round objects and tripping over his shoelaces, but loanee goalkeeper non-extraordinaire Paul Rachubka. The former Man Utd man (yes, you did read that correctly) pulled off a remarkable double save in the second half to keep the score at 1-0, before ruining all his good work by failing to come out to meet the cross that led to Charlton's winner.

Moment of madness... The moment when George Porter was caught napping as Charlton took the quick free kick that led to their first goal. No doubt it's tiring work driving round Essex wolf-whistling at girls all day, but the young winger really needs to pay more attention during matches.

Knight in shining armour... It was an afternoon of performances as flaccid as a Brisbane Road burger (where the imminent danger of gastroenteritis is much more threatening than the Os' attacks.) I suppose Matt Spring played ok though.

Pantomime horse... Ok, so Terrell Forbes isn't a natural left back, but that shouldn't really excuse another performance that wasn't so much a car crash, more a motorway pile-up.

In the dug out... Russell Slade's decision to go into the game with Terrell Forbes and David Mooney lined up on the left was like a gladiator going in to battle with one arm tied behind his back and a massive fluorescent arrow painted down one side of his body with the words 'STAB ME HERE' emblazoned on it. Worse still, once Syam Ben Youssef came on in place of the injured Scott Cuthbert, it turned out he was a perfectly adequate full back, begging the question as to why, in an injury crisis, he hadn't actually been on the pitch before.

A word on the opposition... Let's not forget Charlton are top of the league and, as opposed to our last meeting with them, actually had 11 players on the pitch for the majority of the game. That is, we were hardly going to win anyway. What is worrying is Orient's consistent inability to turn possession into any meaningful attacks.

Meanwhile on Twitter... This week key members of Orient's glorious promotion squad of 2005/06 such as, erm, Derek Duncan and Aiden Palmer have been talking up a John Mackie-organised reunion on 12 May. "John Mackie #ledge apart from that time he tried to fight efe! Lmao" tweeted Duncan. "hahah Mackie hated Efe with a passion!" replied Palmer. And while the thought of the uncompromising Mackie squaring up to Echanomi conjures up an image of an ageing hippopotamus trying to attack a whippet, I wish them all the best on their night out...

Lesson for the day... Despite the impressive win against Oldham, we're not out of the relegation mire just yet. And with Jordan Rhodes versus Paul Rachubka on Tuesday night - which may resemble using an anti-aircraft missile to wipe out a small, frightened gerbil - there's more trouble ahead...

Leyton Orient 2 Brentford 0, 17/3/12

A game in which... Orient didn't so much as throw the monkey off their back, but flung it into a corner and beat the living daylights out of it. Yes, a home win - the first since New Year's Eve - and a victory by two clear goals, which according to the record books hasn't happened at Brisbane Road since nippy inside forward Frankie 'Sailor Boy' Oliver's goal sealed a victory over Glossop North End back in September 1907*.

Granted it wasn't the most fluid performance - and Brentford blew three big chances to score in the first half - but it was committed and effective and by the second half the victory was a relatively comfortable one. Rejoice!

Moment of magic... The first-half moment when Paul Rachubka confirmed that he wasn't taking part in a Channel 4 Faking It documentary by saving brilliantly from Leon Legge's point blank header and proving he was an actual goalkeeper. Admittedly the perennial loanee's first action of the game had been to let an innocuous ball spoon off his chest and into the path of Brentford's Saido Berehino, but after that he was flawless. As an added bonus, unlike the 78 keepers who've previously turned out for Orient this season, he managed to avoid getting crocked. (So expect him to suffer a bizarre finger injury later tonight while setting the dishwasher.)

Moment of madness... When Russell Slade made his usual 80th-minute substitution and brought on Jonathan Tehoue... only to remember he'd let the Frenchman go two weeks ago and had inadvertently allowed defender Syam Ben Youssef onto the pitch to lead the attack. Full credit to the Tunisian though - he looked more at home up there than David Mooney.

Knight in shining armour... It was a committed team performance today, though Ben Chorley, Adam Reed and Jamal Campbell-Ryce all had particularly good games. Man of the match, however, should go to Kevin Lisbie for a much-improved performance and the fact that - in a break from the time-honoured tradition of Orient strikers - he actually scored. More of that please.

Pantomime horse... No bad performances from any Orient players, so instead let's focus on officiously self-important referee Paul Tierney for trying to book Dean Cox for a wild tackle actually committed by Adam Reed. After Tiny had protested his innocence Tierney pointed the finger of accusation at various other Orient players while Reed skulked self-consciously into the background like a naughty schoolboy about to be disciplined for giving the French exchange kid a wedgie. Ultimately the referee simply gave up and waved play on. Where's David Elleray when you need him?

In the dug out... Today Russell Slade threw caution to the wind and played both Dean Cox and Jamal Campbell-Ryce, the first time he's trusted in that much flair since buying a pair of bell-bottomed jeans in 1972 after a Jefferson Airplane gig.

A word on the opposition... After the 5-0 drubbing Brentford dealt to Orient earlier in the season Bees fans must have come to Brisbane Road licking their lips with all the relish of Jermain Defoe at an X Factor past-winners party. Unfortunately for them their team have been about as bad on the road as Orient have at home so something had to give. Three big chances in the first half went begging and from there the home team were in control.

Meanwhile on Twitter... Jamie "Orient goalkeeper... for now" Jones showed his ongoing dedication to the team week this week when his partner posted a picture of their young son wearing a Spurs shirt. "No chance" the injured Scouser tweeted back before presumably swapping it for an Everton one.

Lesson for the day... It is not, after all, scientifically impossible for Orient to win at Brisbane Road. And if we can defy the laws of physics like this today, who knows what might happen on Tuesday. Calvin Andrew to score?

* Actual fact