FA Cup: Leyton Orient 5 Southport 2, 9/11/13

Southport's reserve keeper

A game which... featured all the comedy defending, wayward passing and reckless tackling you'd expect when a non-league side visit Brisbane Road. Although to be fair the guilty party wasn't Southport, it was Orient - or more specifically Yohann Lasimant.

Ok, that's a bit harsh, for though this wasn't the Os' most coherent performance there were four quality goals and the outcome never looked in doubt, especially given that the visitors' three first-half injuries meant that club mascot Dave Stevenson had to get changed out of his birdie costume and go in goal for them.  

Moment of magic... Elliot Omozusi's succession of stepovers as he attacked down the right wing in the second half, the most audacious case of showboating at Brisbane Road since George Porter bought himself a 150ft luxury yacht in anticipation of his big-money move to Real Madrid that still hasn't quite yet materialised. 

Jimmy Smith: #fuming

Moment of madness... The moment when Romain Vincelot - one yellow card away from a convenient suspension for the low-priority Johnstone's Paint Trophy game against Stevenage - kicked the ball away in an attempt to get himself booked. It was so lacking in subtlety he might as well have felt-tipped the words 'The referee is a c**t' across his face and be done with it. Interestingly a fuming Jimmy Smith once tried to do that very thing at half-time after being denied a clear penalty minutes earlier. Luckily for him he spelt 'referee' as 'rifurreey' so the officials were none the wiser. 

Top gun... Omozusi and Clarke were as good as ever, and Dean Cox scored a belter, but Shaun Batt proved yet again that he's not nicknamed 'Battman' simply because of the time he turned up at training wearing his underpants over his trousers after a mix-up in his morning routine. The striker was a powerful presence throughout and took his goal with typical prowess.

Yohann Lasimant

Little donkey... No one in the Orient squad can kill a ball stone dead like Yohan Lasimant. Then again no one else is quite as wasteful once they do have it under control. There is a very decent player lurking within the Frenchman, but at the moment his lack of end product makes him the footballing equivalent of a beautiful teenage girl who spends five hours applying make up, only to puke up into her own face after her first Bacardi Breezer. 

In the dug out... Russell Slade took something of a gamble today - and not just by standing within 15ft of one of Brisbane Road's ear-bleeding loud-speakers. The manager chose to rest key players and give starts to the likes of Jake Larkins, Johnny Gorman, Frankie Sutherland and Yohann Lasimant. And the fact that his team won pretty convincingly gives hope that we can still compete at the top of League One even when the inevitable injuries hit as the the season wears on. 

View from the opposition... "Lost 5-2 and played quite well," wrote Southport fan Jay Mobbs. "Best atmosphere in 13 years of supporting the club. Makes you proud to be a Sandgrounder." Yes, their fans and players were a credit to the club - and it's been a while since we've seen a conga in the North Stand. Respect. 

Tweet of the week... Congratulations to Jake Larkins who made his senior debut for Orient today. And what can we learn about the young goalkeeper from his Twitter feed? Well, he believes "Made in Chelsea is so much better than towie." Well that's ruined his chance of pulling at Faces nightclub, Gants Hill. He's sensitive: "Surprise surprise has got me in tears." And he's easily agitated by long-established systems of classifying dates and times: "No way is Sunday the first day in the week :( so confused." Welcome Jake! 

Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Leyton Orient 0 Coventry City 0, 8/10/13

A game which... was the perfect advert for cup sponsor Johnstone's, in that the spectacle was exactly like watching some of their paint dry. Yes, it was lucky the tickets were only £10 each because, in terms of value for money, that meant they were only £10 overpriced.

So Orient aren't hitting the heights of earlier this season and for most of the match struggled to play the final pass or construct purposeful attacks. On the plus side the defence were superb and all four penalties perfectly executed. And still no one other than a Premier League side has managed to beat us this season. Don't panic!

Moment of magic... Jamie Jones's brilliant penalty save - the first he had to make all match - and clearly inspired by the pre-shoot out pep talk from goalkeeping coach Kevin Dearden. "Right, Scouse. Chicken Cottage on Leyton High Road are doing two-for-one buckets of spicy chicken wings until 10pm so for Christ's sake save a couple so we can get the fuck out of here."

David Mooney's touch is somewhere here

Moment of madness... The moment towards the end of the match when substitute David Mooney was put clean through by Lloyd James. It would have been a certain goal, save for the fact that the Irish striker's touch didn't merely desert him, it booked a one-way flight to Australia and left without so much as a goodbye.

Top gun... Another towering performance by Nathan Clarke tonight, who's proving to be so solid at the back this season it's like having a six-foot brick wall in front of the Orient goal. Which, interestingly, Martin Ling once tried when he needed a bit more mobility than Joe Dolan could offer.

Little donkey... Yohann Lasimant - given his first start of the season tonight - certainly looks cultured. But then again so does a pot of strawberry yogurt and you wouldn't ask that to try to execute a successful pass to a team mate. And while the Frenchman can certainly dribble round in circles, some end product is going to be useful if he's to contribute more this season.

The management... "We're lucky to have Samsung as a sponsor, they have given us a tablet which we used to show Jamie some clips," said Kevin Nugent after the game in a shameless attempt to blag a free Galaxy S4 smartphone to replace the battered Nokia 5110 he's had since 1998. "The lads may laugh," he added, "but none of them have scored over 4 billion on Snake."

View from the opposition... "Hope Steven Pressley sticks this up on the tactics board tomorrow," wrote Sky Blues fan Curtis Armstrong yesterday of the photo below, adding "John Fleck take note." And Fleck did indeed take note of not shooting straight at the keeper when taking his penalty. He put it wide instead.

Tweet of the week... "Why wasn't I born in Spain (Barcelona)" tweeted one-time Orient cry baby Dean Morgan plaintively this week. Pray tell why, Deano: Is it because of Gaudi's impressive modernist architecture throughout the city? Is it because of the proud history of Catalonian nationalism? Is it because of the molecular gastronomy cuisine created by the pioneering Adria brothers? Nope, apparently it's this: "I would love to play in the Nou Camp." Yep, Deano, if you'd been born in Barcelona you'd definitely have a chance of appearing at the Nou Camp. I've heard they're pretty short of stewards at the moment.

Orient by numbers... Two. The number of teeth one unfortunate press photographer has left after being clattered by Moses Odubajo in the first half. "I was lucky," he spluttered after the game. "A colleague of mine got steamrollered by Michael Symes last season. We're still trying to dig him out."

Capital One Cup: Leyton Orient 0 Hull City Tigers 1, 27/8/13

A game which... was preceded by Hull City Tigers' admirable charity campaign to highlight the dangers of botched cosmetic surgery on elderly women. Or at least it appeared so until it transpired that their brave victim was actually manager Steve Bruce. 

On the pitch Orient were yet again undone by a late Hull City Tigers goal, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that the home side dominated pretty much the whole 120 minutes. Ok, we didn't turn the pressure into a goal, but in this clash of top flight versus third tier, a casual observer would have thought that Hull City Tigers were the League One side and Orient, well, the slightly better League One side.

Moment of magic... The moment in extra time when Romain Vincelot charged into a scything tackle on the touchline then beat his chest heroically in front of the West Stand. Were it not for the fact he was tasked with controlling the midfield he'd probably have ripped apart the carcass of a wild boar with his bare teeth, downed seven flagons of ale and slept with every fair maiden in the stadium too.  

Moment of madness... The moment leading to Hull City Tigers' goal when the ball became stuck under the boot of Nathan Clarke who - at full stretch - was prone in the six-yard box. This was a rotten piece of luck - like finding yourself behind Kevin Dearden in the lunch queue - for a player who'd been imperious in defence throughout the night.

Top gun... Where to even begin? The whole back five were immense; James and Vincelot were superb in midfield; and Odubajo showed that he really should be playing against better opposition than Hull City Tigers' reserve team. But let's take a moment to remember quite what a classy player Dean Cox is. He was everywhere - which is saying something for a player whose tiny legs need 37 steps to negotiate a single metre. 

Yohann Lasimant in training

Little donkey... Why play a simple pass when you can execute an insouciant flick conceived on the beaches of Rio De Janiero? This is a question that needs to be asked of new signing and late substitute Yohann Lasimant. The boy's got talent, for sure, but he may need to tailor it towards the more earthier requirements of League One. 

The management... Unlike during some of the more 'difficult' periods of Russell Slade's reign, the manager is currently absolutely clear what his best starting XI is. Mind you, given the paucity of our squad a senile amoeba - or Jimmy Smith even - could probably name our best team. And that team is purring like a jet engine - or at least a top-of-the-range lawnmower - at the moment, which is once again credit to the job big Russ is doing. 

View from the opposition... "Orient's 1st team v #hcafc reserves remember," wrote Hull City Tigers fan Rob Wilson, rather ungraciously. "Not pretty but never troubled thanks largely to stout defending McShane style."

Tweet of the week... Cast your mind back to a time when huge hulking dinosaurs roamed the earth. Ok, maybe not that far, but at least back to 2005 when huge hulking dinosaurs roamed the Orient defence. One of those was called Joe Dolan and fans who remember his couple of appearances at Brisbane Road would perhaps be a little surprised to see Joe anywhere within a 5000-mile radius of the Premier League trophy. Yeah, well, fuck you all because this week Joe tweeted this picture after sneaking into FA Headquarters disguised as a sack of potatoes.