With weather conditions ideal for football and this second round of Essex Walking Football Over 60s League matches taking place at Leyton Orient’s ‘home’ ground at Douglas Eyre everything was set for a good morning’s walking football. With four twenty minute matches played consecutively the pressure was on Orient to keep up their good start to the season.

First up for Orient were Eastwood Falcons Yellows and although the Os had good possession they just could not break down the Eastwood defence. Martin and Bancroft were solid at the back and with Sullivan’s safe hands in goal the Falcons never looked like scoring. With the introduction of Stevenson and Wahlhaus in the second half Orient did have more forward possession but any strike on goal was dealt with by the Eastwood keeper. Final score: Eastwood Falcons Yellows 0 v 0 Leyton Orient.

Next were Concord Rangers and Orient came out of the blocks quickly with Ridley stealing the ball straight from the kickoff and only being stopped by the Concord keeper. Orient were completely in control, passing and moving and finding space and eventually a move from Wahlhaus to Stevenson found Ridley in space at the edge of the box and he slotted home. With Orient continuing to press it wasn’t long before their second goal arrived. A ball from Mullins in mid-field found Stevenson on the left who passed the ball on to Ridley on the wing. With the time to look up Ridley found Wahlhaus on the opposite wing and taking one touch he powered it home. The second half was less controlled as Concord put more pressure on the Orient player with the ball but at no time did Orient look like conceding. Final score: Concord Rangers 0 v 2 Leyton Orient (Ridley, Wahlhaus).

The third game of the day was against Eastwood Falcons Blues and this was another tough game where Orient controlled a lot of the play but the opposition appeared to have parked the bus. Every attack seemed to founder and when Orient did get any meaningful shot on target the Eastwood keeper denied the attempt. With only five minutes left on the clock Orient got a corner on the left. Some neat play between Schneider and Stevenson allowed Stevenson to play the ball into Ridley at the edge of the box. Unfortunately for the Falcons, in intercepting the pass their defender had run across the area thus conceding a penalty. Wahlhaus stepped up and duly dispatched a fierce drive past their keeper. It was now just a case of holding on for the final minutes. Final score: Eastwood Falcons Blues 0 v 1 Leyton Orient (Wahlhaus).

The last game of the day was against Grays and this was another team who put the majority of their effort into defending and didn’t have one meaningful shot on target all game. Although Orient controlled long periods of the game their speed of thought and action were obviously suffering from playing four energy sapping games in a row. By the end Grays were the happier of the two teams having held on for the draw. Final score: Leyton Orient 0 v 0 Grays.

This was a good morning’s walking football played in excellent conditions and in entirely the right spirit. The whole team played well making excellent use of the additional space afforded by the larger than normal pitches. It would be remiss to pick out any one player but it speaks volumes for the strength in depth of the squad that at no time did any substitutions weaken the team on the pitch and the Os kept four clean sheets.

A final word of thanks to Tony Brooks who organised the event aided on the day by his able assistants, Len Cheston and Steve Tongue.

Leyton Orient squad: John Bancroft, Gary Martin, Mick Mullins, Trevor Ridley, Gerry Schneider, Phil Stevenson, Tony Sullivan (Gk), Tony Wahlhaus (Capt).

Goal scorers: Wahlhaus 2, Ridley.

Location

Douglas Eyre, Coppermill Lane E17