Sometime around 4:30pm on the afternoon of the Huddersfield match I was mentally going through a prospective candidate list for the upcoming managerial vacancy at Leyton Orient. I thought to myself that ‘if Kevin Nugent gets the job, then it’s a clear sign that we are resigning ourselves to relegation’ while Matt Porter in the visiting directors seats was probably busy ‘googling’ the ‘football365’ website on his blackberry to see if there were any prospective candidates that came under the headings of ‘worth a go’ and ‘works cheap’. Three weeks (and twenty minutes) on from that point, the mighty O’s have 10 precious points and three wins on the board. ‘In Slade we trust’? Maybe more than we were four weeks ago I’d freely admit.

So, what are we doing differently? Well, in truth, I don’t think we’ve been that great but Russell Slade’s team have finally started to get a few vital breaks during tight matches. The Preston encounter was simply a massive win for us not only providing our first win but the way the whole team worked their collective cobblers off when we were under severe pressure, especially in the second half.

Those  vital points have galvanised the whole atmosphere at the clubas has the signing of Lisbie, who is starting to  conjure up a similar influence as Scott McGleish provided when he arrived here for his most influential spell in back 2009. Going by the evidence of the Bury game I would say that Steve Dawson is starting to resemble the player that provided much of the drive from our midfield last season and luckily for us Dean Cox is starting to hit some form too.

And yet you could still argue that the O’s still struggle to impose themselves as an attacking force for anything resembling a sustained period during games. I thought that our forward play against Bury was, in general, shocking.

With respect to Bury they should have been despatched by three clear goals and reminded many of us how Orient looked right the way through September.

I still have major doubts over David Mooney, and despite him creating two goals in two games, he just gives off this air of a fragile player who has difficulty fitting in or producing quality when required (especially in the 18 yard box). Matthew Spring is another player who is just as liable to play us into terrible trouble rather than create something for our forwards to feed off. These two must be frustrating to play alongside let alone watch as a mere spectator, and there are still times when our performances look disjointed and liable to implode at any second.

Slade has stuck with his present diamond formation for a good six weeks now and he would argue that it has worked for him. It’s true up to a point, but was has turned the tide for us (albeit briefly) is the fact that his best players such as Cox, Dawson, Lisbie and Daniels are finally beginning to hit form. What we really need now is some decent reinforcements to bolster out attack via the loan window. As I see it, another decent wide man and a solid forward to help Lisbie out would see Orient a long way to League One safety. It would also make a change from signing another goalkeeper now Slade has something like 37 of them here at the club; all from Spurs and almost all maimed in some capacity.

ORIENT 1 WEST HAM £5,000,000 PER SEASON

And so it came to pass that the Olympic Stadium saga took another turn into farce with the announcement of the Government and OPLC’s decision not to sell the Stratford white elephant to our claret and blue friends from E6. This is due to the possibility of ‘legal paralysis’ that threatened to bog down the sale of the stadium brought about by those terrible unpatriotic upstarts know as Tottenham Hotspur FC and Little Leyton Orient FC. That argument is, of course, complete b*ll*cks because the Government was quite happy to kill Orient off in the locality on the grounds of political expediency.

The British legal system at one point warned Orient not to appeal against this any further and both the Football league and Premier league were quite prepared to ignore their own rules in regard to clubs moving onto another’s patch. I’d love to know the identity of the anonymous complainant to the European Commission that was mentioned by Hugh Robertson, the Minister for Sport. My money would be on the letter sent to Brussels with the Romford postmark…

It’s fair to say that this magazine has devoted thousands of column inches to stadiums over the past 25 years, with the one consistent on this subject being that there isn’t anything resembling a ‘consistent’ when committees, sporting governing bodies, politicians, architects, club chairman or anybody that wears a suit in their job gets involved in building them. Hearn has won a great and against the odds victory which has left myself and a fair few others gobsmacked. It’s probably the greatest bit of poker playing that BH has ever been involved in, but he was helped no end by the arrogance and sheer incompetence of the people making the decisions at the top.

Back in March, during the club AGM, Barry declared that there would be a time when all the gerrymandering and bar room deals would be exposed and this will come to fruition on December 14th when the head of the OPLC, Paul Deighton, is called before a parliamentary committee to explain just why this all went tits up. I should think that Ken, Boris, Tessa Jowell and a host of others will be having some very awkward moments in the public gaze in the weeks to come as well.

So who are the winners and losers here? The biggest losers are the usual suspects I’m afraid, namely, football supporters and the tax payers of the UK.  I don’t know of a single Spurs or West Ham fan who (deep down) really wanted their clubs to up sticks and move out of their traditional location and if you ask any Orient fan whether we should move to that stadium they would tell you that it was bad enough watching the O’s play at Brighton’s old Withdean stadium let alone attending home matches at such a venue.

Yet, West Ham are still hell bent on occupying this stadium and even Barry Hearn was quoted along the lines of Orient have an interest in being tenants in some capacity. I think Spurs will come out of this quite happy, though. Going by some reports they were even on the verge of throwing in the legal towel only hours before the Government lost their bottle (or, to be more precise, Newham council realising that they had backed a wrong’un) and kicked the whole plan into touch.

Tottenham now find themselves in a position of strength in regard to their stadium plans  now that people have woken up to how dependent the local businesses  in and around their ground are on them staying in the location. Also, now that the recent riots have earmarked the area as one of regeneration they have suddenly become a major player when it comes to local politics and the role that they could play as a ‘community asset’. Spurs could even re-bid for Stratford stadium along with the Hammers, but yet again there could be a twist at the end of this saga.

I wouldn’t rule out a bid from someone like IMG (a global sports and media company) for the Olympic Stadium when all this is done and dusted. The date set for a new owner/tenant at the Olympic Stadium is 2014, which (coincidentally) is when Orient cease to be owners of their own stadium at Brisbane Road and become lodgers themselves at the ground that they have inhabited since 1937 for a rent of over £100,000 per annum. Yes, it was wonderful to see the Hammers given a bloody nose and Hearn standing up to people who wanted to walk all over us, but I wouldn’t start crowing about  our victory too soon. Not before our own long term future is secured in a sustainable and secure fashion at any rate.


Toodle pip!

The cyberman