Saturday 8th August 2026 ko 15:00

EFL Cup 1st Round

LEYTON ORIENT 2 (Mitchell 85 El Mizouni 88)

OXFORD UNITED 0

Att 3,783 (979 away)

Hospitality in Justin Edinburgh Stand £45 (entry, programme, teamsheet, lounge, 2 course meal)

Back in the early 90’s I was at university in North London within easy reach of Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium. I didn’t go very often, preferring to head home to Oxford whenever United had a home game and if they weren’t at home I’d try and visit every Football League ground in the capital. 35 years ago all you needed to do was turn up and pay, tickets were cheap and easily bought- how times change!

But one evening after lectures Arsenal were at home so I strolled over to the ticket office, but since it was after 6pm they decided that it was too late to sell me me ticket- and even now I have no idea why? So I hot-footed it to the Underground- Leyton Orient were at home to Gillingham in the Football League Trophy, and soon discovered time does seem to stand still once those train doors slide shut- whether you’ll make kick off is in someone’s else’s hands. I dashed from Leyton station to Brisbane Road, missing the first few minutes of the game, and only being let in to the old North Terrace on the kindness of the gateman. Yes, I did contrast that with Arsenal’s attitude!

It’s fair to say I enjoyed myself that evening, I found so much about the Orient that I loved about my own club and ground, the quirks, the pitched roofed stands, and the enchanted paddock. I visited many times as years went by, enjoyed the long lost tea bar in the South away terrace and the two ladies who used to roll the pitch at half time. I smiled when , in 1995 manager John Sitton sacked defender Terry Howard at half-time, his rant immortalised in “Orient Club for a Fiver.” I winced when Orient relegated us to the National League in 2006, and raged as owner Francesco Becchetti’s malice and incompetance saw the O’s relegated out of the EFL behind closed doors in 2017.

The O’s found their way back to the EFL in 2019 with Justin Edinburgh in charge, and his tragic death soon after hit the whole football community hard, so the new West Stand behind named after him was a fitting tribute. These days Brisbane Road is close to be unrecognisable from the ground I loved back when. Just the former main East Stand is left in truncated form; all four corners of the ground were sold off for a development of flats in 2007, the impact is similar to that at Tunavallen, Eskilstuna in Sweden and that stadium does come with the distinction of being a World Cup venue!

You sense that there has been a certain loss of self in all that building, home doesn’t look or feel quite as it did. I feel the same way about my club. We celebrated promotion at Wembley two years ago but by the first game of the next season I was already wondering what the cost might be? Those two years in the Championship cost us our chairman, CEO, physio, several members of the support staff, and most painfully Des Buckingham our local lad made good manager. He’s now in Saudi Arabia, while our new chairman in Indonesia has failed to even give our Fan Advisory Board a direct email address, while our spending spree to try and prevent relegation has seen the club placed under a transfer embargo while the club tries to reduce the wage bill.

That proved to be handy to get rid of players that seemed high on wages but lacking in any semblance of commitment, but it has left the squad very thin, but at least what is left wants to be here! We chose to try Orient’s hospitality package in the Justin Edinburgh stand. The service was friendly, the lasagne superb, but there is the quirk, that since your seat is in the regualr part of the stand you have to finish your meal, than you have to to back outside to pass through the turnstiles to get to your seat. It also means that you can’t go back to the lounge at half time. It didn’t matter, and our seats were excellent.

The game was a perfect illustration of the issues Oxford’s new manager Aaron Ramsey faces. On one had the 1-11 is more talented then the Wembley team, but the bench consisted of youth teamers and players rejected by previous managers. The team competed for 85 minutes but ran out of steam with the winner coming from Idris El Mizouni, a player deemed not good enough by former Gary Rowett. You can bet he enjoyed the moment, but me? While enjoying the irony, I did wince- I seem to do that a lot when Leyton Orient are concerned!