I would like to thank Port Vale for hitting the self destruct button at roughly 4.10pm on Saturday afternoon.

After an awful, inept display in the first 45 minutes it looked as if we were staring relegation and life in League Two in the face. Luckily, after their complete collapse in the second half and results elsewhere going favourably, we now seem to be right back in with a shout of staying in the division.

On a lot of occasions this season I’ve been convinced that we’re going down. Half time on Saturday, Barnsley away and Scunthorpe at home are all moments when I couldn’t see any hope for us. Yet we keep managing to keep ourselves just about in touch and give ourselves a chance of making an escape.

Why is it then that we seem to take every opportunity to shoot ourselves in the foot? Fans, players and hierarchy alike have all behaved in counterproductive ways over the last few days.

Firstly, there was the bizarre decision by owner Francesco Becchetti to announce the whole stadium that Darius Henderson had arrived late to the game, no doubt embarrassing and angering him in the process. Obviously Becchetti is well within his right to be annoyed that someone who he is paying a significant wage can’t turn up on time but there are ways and means of resolving the issue.

I’m not sure public embarrassment is the best way of resolving the issue, especially if there’s a genuine reason as to why he was late. I’m sure doing that made Becchetti feel a lot better about the situation, but I can’t really see how that will benefit a dressing room that is already struggling and low on confidence. It also does nothing to help improve the relationship between him and the fans, a lot of whom still remain sceptical about him.

The second incident also occurred during the game on Saturday. With the score at 2-1, Liverani decided to bring on Gianvito Plasmati. As it was announced that he was coming on, a minority of people around me in the South Stand booed him.

Now I get that he hasn’t set the world alight and many Orient fans don’t rate him at all (personally don’t think he’s as bad as people think he is), but to boo someone in the Orient shirt is just embarrassing. What on earth will that achieve?

I can’t imagine his confidence is through the roof as it is and people are giving him a hard time before he has even got on the pitch. I felt rather satisfied when he came on and played a part in the third goal that killed the game off.

This isn’t the first time this season incidents like this have occurred. Both Gary Woods and Adam Legzdins have been sarcastically cheered when struggling this season. It’s obvious that the team is struggling this season and behaviour like that from the fans will have no positive impact on the players.

I can understand booing a poor performance, we all get frustrated, but singling out individual players in the Orient shirt for stick is just criminal.

Finally, I’m baffled by the timing of this international break and in particular, the willingness of Jobi McAnuff to fly off half way across the world to take part in two pointless international friendlies. Ryan Hedges going, I can understand, on the basis that he isn’t actually our player and he is playing in qualifying games.

McAnuff on the other hand I find frustrating, he had finally come into some good form and then at a crucial stage of the season, misses ‘six pointers’ to go and play in meaningless friendlies. I understand wanting to represent your country but it just leaves a sour taste.

With the situation we’re in, we need everyone pulling in the same direction if we want to preserve our League One status. I do actually think we will manage to pull it out of the bag, so let’s think before we start singling out players and giving them a hard time. That goes for Becchetti as well as us fans.

Up The O’s!