IT’S ALL OVER
Orient and Swindon suffer relegation
AFTER more than a century, crisis club Leyton Orient crashed out of the Football League yesterday as their troubled season hit a new low.
A 3-0 defeat at Crewe put the final nail in the O’s coffin and League Two’s bottom club face an uncertain future – a winding up petition was adjourned until June after the club paid off money owed to HMRC.
The O’s have had five different managers this season and staff are still waiting to receive their March wages.
Swindon also suffered relegation, to League Two, after going down to a 2-1 home defeat against Scunthorpe.
Lincoln City will line up in the EFL next term after clinching the National League title yesterday with a 2-1 win against Macclesfield.
SWINDON Town head coach Luke Williams says his side’s unsuccessful relegation battle consumed his life – though Robins fans will say the same.
Swindon’s five-year stay in League One ended as goals from Murray Wallace and Sam Mantom were enough to give promotion-chasing Scunthorpe United three points, despite Rohan Ince scoring a late consultation wonder-strike.
It left a haunted Williams to face the music again – while outside fans made their feelings known about his abilities.
“I only want to talk about myself because I don’t want to talk about any other aspects that I believe that may have contributed to our relegation because I don’t think it’s my place to do that,” he said.
“I think I can do better, I should have done better. I should have made better team selections and better tactics.
“I should have been able to motivate the players better and so I can only talk for myself that I needed to do more. The only thing I know for a fact is that I thought about everything every minute of every day.”
Scunthorpe broke the deadlock in the fifth minute of the game through central defender Murray Wallace. Josh Morris’s overhit corner was picked up on the left-wing by David Murfin, who showed good skill before centering for his defensive partner to bundle into the net.
The early goal came as too much for some Swindon fans, who attempted to make there way to the dugout to confront Williams as chants of ‘We want our Swindon back’ rang around the County Ground.
The home side offered little in attack in the first half and were lucky to go into the break one goal down with Morris hitting the crossbar with a 25-yard free-kick three minutes before the interval.
Scunthorpe continued to press for a second goal and were rewarded on the 71st minute when substitute Mantom scored within seconds after coming on, poking in after good work on the left by Morris.
With relegation looming, Ince gave the home fans something to cheer with a 30-yard wonderstrike.
With results going against them, the Iron’s faint automatic promotion hopes were ended, but manager Graham Alexander remained content.
“We’re a little bit disappointed but we knew it was only an outside chance, considering the teams who we have above us, like Bolton, so we didn't really focus on it,” he said.
“We haven’t really spoken about the other teams and it wasn’t until we were back in the changing room after the game that we first found out that we could no longer be go up automatically.
“I’ve got to be delighted with what the players have done over the last few weeks even if we have come up
just short at the end.”