MATCHWATCH : Leyton Orient (a)

[Vision]

Yes, yes he was. Elaborating a bit more, he was averaging about 1 goal in 3 and was improving the more he played.

Come on now. Two of his 3 goals for us were against Exeter under 18s in the pizza trophy.

With Ballard, there at least looked to be a half decent footballer in there even if he couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo whilst with us and, to be fair to him, we were oxf*rd shit the early part of that season. Was it the Shrewsbury debacle he crocked his knee? We shifted formation and looked a different team after that performance.

We'd already changed for the Shrewsbury game.

I say this all the time but we played well that day until Selles took off Ballard and Smith (not a mistake he made again) with about 15-20 minutes to go and we capitulated to 2 set piece goals in injury time.

Ballard looked like a talented footballer but for the first chunk of the season our chance creation was virtually non-existent. When Selles finally moved from 4-2-2-2 he was briefly moved to the left and looked very good. Then he got injured.

[Clyde1998]

Probably one of the worst performances of the season so far. Felt very much like the Peterborough game in terms of seemingly only turning up to draw, but Leyton Orient got the goals Peterborough didn't.

They had the ability to cause us problems throughout the game. The lack of pace in defence was exploited heavily - Dom Ballard and their #44 aren't lightning fast, but our defence couldn't handle them; thought our right side was terrible yesterday and was very easily exploited.

Matt Ritchie continues to be very disappointing; looked like he was running through treacle too. Pereira didn't look as comfortable coming for crosses and didn't get to a number of them (including for one of the disallowed goals).

No idea what we were trying to do with the formation in the second half - appeared to be some variation on 3-2-5 at points.

Once again a long gap between matches has lead to a defeat and poor performance.

If there are some positives to take from this: good to see Will Keane get on the pitch (albeit he didn't do much); the return of Paddy Lane; Jack Marriott getting yet another goal; Ehibhatiomhan looked positive once he came on.

[Clyde1998]

"Al Habsis in ISIS" or words to the equivalent made me feel a bit sick. Coupled with what I was hearing at Salmon and Ball, and our fans have properly regressed to neandthals. Absolute divs

I was in the home end right along side the Reading fans.

For the Reading goal someone threw a battery at us hitting one of the club officials sat in the neutral zone. The 20 or so teensgers spent the entire match goading about 10 teenagers from orient. They weren't watching the game at all. I appreciate this may be normal for some.

These teenagers think they are hard, they seem to have forgotten they're from Reading, and based on their hairstyles look like they go to private school. They're so embarrassing. I actually found myself joining in with your not singing anymore at them after the 3rd goal because their faces were priceless.

Was next to a group at Peterborough. They spent the game talking about their scraps, including being identified and talked to by the police a few games later. Based on the name of one of them, I really wouldn't put it past them being private school pupils.

[Norfolk Royal]

"Al Habsis in ISIS" or words to the equivalent made me feel a bit sick. Coupled with what I was hearing at Salmon and Ball, and our fans have properly regressed to neandthals. Absolute divs

I was in the home end right along side the Reading fans.

For the Reading goal someone threw a battery at us hitting one of the club officials sat in the neutral zone. The 20 or so teensgers spent the entire match goading about 10 teenagers from orient. They weren't watching the game at all. I appreciate this may be normal for some.

These teenagers think they are hard, they seem to have forgotten they're from Reading, and based on their hairstyles look like they go to private school. They're so embarrassing. I actually found myself joining in with your not singing anymore at them after the 3rd goal because their faces were priceless.

Was next to a group at Peterborough. They spent the game talking about their scraps, including being identified and talked to by the police a few games later. Based on the name of one of them, I really wouldn't put it past them being private school pupils.

Tarquin Fortescue-Smyth?

[South Coast Royal]

There was something I meant to add to the previous post but didn’t, and it concerns Pereira. I gather from this board that he’s a bit of a fans’ favourite and no doubt there are good reasons for that, every keeper plays a blinder occasionally. There was some evidence yesterday, albeit scant that he was average to good as shot stopping, but my concern was about his distribution. When he clears long from a back pass or even a placed kick, he tends to hang it up high in the air. Maybe that is his thing, maybe not adept enough to make a lower or better aimed clearance, although many goalkeepers have added that to thei skillset in recent years. The effect of him constantly hanging it up into the clouds is that it gives the defenders time to get into position to make a positive clearance and opposition midfielders ample time to get in an attacking position knowing full well they are likely to shortly receive the ball. This coupled with the fact that invariably Marriott, who is not a target man, is under the clearance as the last man and, not his fault, does not usually win possession instantly puts us on the back foot. Is that a factor in our play that could be quickly improved? Surely it can be.

Not Pereira's best game but he gets a free pass from me because of all the points we have gained from him probably being the best keeper in the division and with a lesser keeper we could well be in the relegation places, so tight is the league.

I guess he is instructed to kick long-I recall Hunt saying that up front we are looking for knock-downs but that tactic isn't great with a midget as our central striker.

There are many things wrong with this side but I want my keeper making saves and full-backs making tackles before worrying about how they set up play going forward.