Everton v Leyton Orient fan's view
10:59am Thursday 30th August 2012 in Latest Sport By Rowland Lyons
Russell Slade's side took a real beating at Everton last night
Despite suffering a five-goal thrashing last night, positives – however few - can be taken from this game.
For a start, it gave us a breather from the League One ‘inferno’ and I am sure the experience of having played in front of nearly 25,000 vocal Evertonians will have inspired our players.
It was great seeing the lads line up against some Premiership big hitters – something I am sure all O’s fans would like to see more frequently.
But, with the honeymoon period soon over after going a goal down within the first 20 minutes, lessons will have to have been learnt.
Probably the most disappointing aspect was having made a steady start to what initially seemed a cracking cup tie - by showing some good touches - possession was cheaply conceded and a
‘killer’
pass found Kevin Mirallas who then went on to spoil Jamie Jones’s return to Goodison – setting the scene for the next hour as Everton ran riot.
After not really having done ourselves justice in the first period, at least we pressed for a consolation late on and you could see how much the game meant to the likes of Dean Cox, who twice went agonizingly close to reducing the deficit late on.
And, it was good to finally see Lee Cook playing his first game as a ‘full-time’ Orient player and should he stay injury free, I am sure he will add some quality to the midfield engine room.
Martin Rowlands has been around the block and allied to Cook, I hope that their presence will kick-start our season.
We won’t – surely – be playing teams of Everton’s calibre every week and I would be seriously worried if were shipping goals against our contemparies.
The Toffees were clinical in front of goal and gave our strikers a finishing lesson, as well as our midfielders to the woes of losing the ball.
But, the truth is we are now out of the Capital One Cup – although slightly ‘richer’ after gate receipts from the large attendance are taken into consideration.
So, it’s back to our ‘bread and butter’ on Saturday at newly-promoted Crawley and definitely a wake-up call after the cauldron of Goodison. The five goals conceded – after all – won’t show against us the league table – so we can take some solace from that.
Ritchie Barker’s side – though - will surely be on a ‘high’ after their Bolton cup win and won’t be pushovers despite the largely ‘non-league’ feel to their small stadium.
Perhaps, with Crawley enjoying home advantage – this clash could well work in our favour. With their good season start, the pressure might well be on them as possible favourites.
Nonetheless, I will be disappointed if we come away from Sussex empty-handed as September has some potentially ‘horrible’ fixtures and it will be important to break our points duck sooner, rather than later.
Keep the faith,
Up the O’s
click2find
