ORIENT’S EXPRESS IS RETURNING
RUSSELL Slade insisted his side are over their mini-slump and called on promotion rivals Brentford to do likewise after his Leyton Orient side replaced the Bees at League One’s summit.
Two Lloyd James penalties were enough to defeat Swindon and return Orient to the table-topping position they relinquished earlier in the month.
Slade said: “We had a difficult period, but we’ve shown our character and come through with two wins. Brentford have been on a remarkable run, but it’s all about them bouncing back now, which they’ve not had to do for a while.
“We’re looking forward to Brentford and Wolves coming here. They’re the games, but every game has that little bit more importance added now.
“The important thing was to get the win. We were well worth the three points. We created chances all afternoon, but without the ball we were excellent.”
Orient, restored to form by midweek victory over Stevenage after four winless games, were the dominator throughout and produced plenty of individual highlights, such as accurate through-balls or Moses Odubajo’s trickery.
But only when Chris Dagnell gently diverted David Mooney’s floating cross onto the post in the first-half did they combine those moments into worthwhile chances.
However, they were gifted goals either side of half-time. First, Odubajo was innocuously situated inside the area when Jamie Reckord clumsily felled him like a rival speed-skater. James sidefooted that penalty home and quickly received another such opportunity.
This time Troy Archibald-Henville had his arms across Mooney as the two ran onto a long ball. The contact began outside the area, but continued into it where the striker tumbled, and James drove this spot-kick down the centre.
Mark Cooper adjusted the deckchairs on his Titanic, but substitutions did nothing to stop the ship’s descent, as the penalty giveaways proved the tip of the iceberg.
It is hard for Cooper to install a swift, short passing game when his players repeatedly pass out of play with stand-in keeper Tyrell Belford a repeat offender.
The Swindon manager said: “We’ve got a style at the club that we’re trying to implement and there’s going to be some frustrating times ahead before we get it perfect.
“We didn’t have enough attempts on goal, we didn’t threaten them enough, but first-half I thought we were comfortable.
“You can’t make two challenges like we did.The first one the Orient winger is facing the stand and our defender decides to tackle him. Then Troy gets himself in a muddle and rugby tackles the boy. We’ve not made Orient work for it. We’ve given them two
goals.”
LEYTON ORIENT: (4-4-2): Jakupovic 7, Cuthbert 7, Baudry 6, Clarke 8, Omozusi 8, Odubajo 8, Vincelot 7, James 7, Cox 6, Mooney 6 (Lisbie 84 6), Dagnall 7 (Batt 76 6) Subs not used: Larkins, Sawyer, Ness, Bartley, Simpson
SWINDON: (4-1-4-1): Belford 4, Byrne 6, ArchibaldHenville 5, Ward 6, Reckord 4, Kasim 5, Murphy 5 (Barker 55 6), Harley 6, Luongo 6, Gladwin 4 (Reis 55 7), Smith 5 Subs not used: Branco, Bartham, Smith, N’Guessan