Orient scrape a point

Saturday, 2nd January 2016
Stevenage 2-2 Leyton Orient

East London’s Leyton Orient kicked off the New Year with an away match at Stevenage – and a single point to show for their journey up the A1. Just over 4,000 fans braved the cold and wet to see the score draw.

It was even stevens to start with – an end to end game, with Orient finding it hard to get in the area. The home defence clearing a shot from Orient top goal scorer Jay Simpson from the line and the visitors having a confident appeal for a penalty turned down. It took an hour before Orient were first on the score sheet: Simpson’s shot was handled by Fraser Franks, giving the Londoners a penalty. Simpson had no problems scoring from the spot.

Within minutes, the home side were awarded a corner – but the shot drifted over the bar, so it took another quarter of an hour to see another goal. Stevenage to draw level when Armand Gnaduillet netted a pass from Tom Pett – and they drew ahead five minutes later as Gnaduillet followed suit with a ball from Kennedy. Despite Orient sending everyone up front in a final surge, it was looking like a home win at full time – in stoppage time Simpson found the top corner of the goal.

The double gave Simpson a tally of 20 goals so far this season and pushed Orient up to number 8 in the table.

Stevenage manager Teddy Sheringham was disappointed with the result, which left his team in 19th position in the table. He commended the team for coming back into the game after the penalty – which he thought was because the ball was kicked onto Franks’s hand rather than coming from a deliberate hand ball

Orient manager Ian Hendon praised Jay Simpson but lamented the performance of his defence, which he blamed for losing Orient full points. He indicated that the defence might need strengthening with some new players.

The team had in fact just been strengthened that morning, when it was confirmed that winger Calaum Jahraldo-Martin had been signed to play for a month on loan from Hull City and could turn out in Orient colours that afternoon: in fact, he stayed on the subs bench. When he’s not playing in the UK, Jahraldo-Martin plays for Antigua and Barbuda.

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