BACK TO THE OL’ ROUTINE!
JOSH COULSON wants to recreate his Cambridge United dream at Leyton Orient after his loan move became permanent this week.
The 28-year-old defender has been with the O’s all season before signing a two-and-a-half year deal with Justin Edinburgh’s side. Coulson’s Cambridge career was boy’s own stuff as he spent ten years at the club he and his family support and helped them to a Non-League double in 2014. First they won the FA Trophy in March before returning to Wembley in May to seal promotion to the Football League through the play-offs. The boyhood U scored their first goal back in League Two in a 1-0 win against Plymouth as they went onto play Manchester United in the FA Cup – even securing a replay at Old Trafford. “I don’t know what else I could have done,” Coulson told The NLP. “I couldn’t have topped that year getting promoted and helping the club get back into the Football League.
“Then there was Man United in the FA Cup and our first game back in the League we won 1-0 and I scored. I couldn’t have dreamt of much more.
Feel-good factor
“The Man United games were massive. I should have scored against them in the first game but, in hindsight, it was the best miss of my career because we got to play at Old Trafford! That was incredible. To play at Old Trafford with some close mates was a brilliant experience I won’t forget.
“It’s my hometown club so just to play for them was a high. But to win in the play-offs and the FA Trophy at Wembley in the same year, you’re probably going to struggle to beat that.
“But I want that again. My life’s changed now. I’ve got a little boy, Harry, who I would love to see me do that.
“It would be nice to pass that down. My dad comes to all the games at Orient now. It’s a real nice set-up there, a nice family club.”
Coulson says leaving United was hard but he also knows Orient is the right move for his career.
“It’s just a massive club, really well run,” Coulson said. “What happened last season has happened and that’s gone.
“We get 5,000 supporters watching our home games, which is brilliant. From day one the feel-good factor has been back, the new owners are good – it’s just getting the club back on its feet. “Obviously we went on a bad run recently, but hopefully in the next couple of years we can get back to where the club wants to be.” And he thinks the arrival of Edinburgh as boss at the back end of 2017 is already paying off. “We needed that kick up the backside and get back to basics,” Coulson said. “The boys have really responded to what he wants to do. “Everyone knows what he’s done in his career and has bought into what he wants. Everyone gets on with him. He’s a really bubbly character. Training is lively and intense. But around the place when we’re not training he has a laugh with the boys and we’ve all responded to that. It’s good.”