A quick review - A game in which Orient had things pretty much sewn up by the end of the first half. The first goal came about after some nice interplay down the right. Dagnall probably should've done better with his initial effort but it came back to Odubajo who made no mistake. With the second goal, Mooney, Dagnall and Cox pressed very well high up the field and on an evening where Stevenage were very direct from the back, the one time they weren't was taken advantage of as Dagnall and Mooney exchanged passes to make it 2-0. I'm not sure if there was a shout for offside when the ball went to Mooney but a 2nd goal was the least the O's deserved. There was only one real effort of note from Stevenage in the first half, Jimmy Smith taking advantage of his ghost-like presence to hammer a shot straight at Jakupovic.
In the second half Stevenage did improve and were unlucky not to grab a goal with some great defending from Clarke preventing Darius Charles from breaking through and big Edin making a great save in injury time. Trevor Kettle also had Graham Westley boiling over after turning down loud shouts for a penalty, Westley throwing a tantrum that a toddler would've been proud of.
Man of the match - It was a much more assured performance from the O's, particularly after the last home game against Bristol City. Jakupovic (one dodgy kick aside) was commanding in goal with one particularly excellent save in injury time, Sawyer was much improved at left-back, James had an excellent game in midfield and Dagnall was lively up front. Standing out though was Moses who provided a constant threat all game on the right. He also supported Cuthbert well in defence and more than deserved his goal.
What next? -Swindon Town. With Brentford facing Wolves this weekend, this could arguably be classed as the biggest game of the season so far. With 2 more home games to come, followed by 2 very winnable away games, it sets up the Brentford game in front of the Sky cameras nicely. We now have 64 points on the board, a total we reached with only 4 games remaining last season. With 14 games remaining we've got a great platform to reach our initial 75 point target quickly and who knows where that will take us to the end of the season. With Omozusi hopefully to return this Saturday we could have a fully fit squad to pick from, and with Lisbie getting a rest last night, it's boding well for the next few games.
Up the O's!
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