Leyton Orient Over 50s Whites finally got their league season underway on a fine Saturday morning in May.
Still without a manager, a brand new captain and vice captain and a quarter of the squad who had barely played a league fixture between them, Orient took to their opening match in high spirits without really knowing how they compared to the opposition.

First up were Stones Athletic. Orient started well, passing the ball with confidence and precision.Burns and Harden in particular linking up well and causing Stones problems. Defensively Orient were well organised and disciplined. Good link up play between Harden and Burns led to Burns firing Orient ahead. At half time Orient spoke about the need to stop running offences as we had already racked up 3.
The second half saw Orient disciplined and walking offences were cut out completely. Indeed it was Stones who were racking up offences and persistent fouling saw a Stones defender blue carded. Orient just needed to see the game out and were doing just that when the referee blew the whistle and called running. As we were trying to work out where to position our free kick, it turns out it was a fourth running offence against Orient and a penalty to Stones. We still don’t know which player was supposed to be running and even the sin binned Stones defender thought it had only been awarded because he was sin binned.
The penalty was well despatched with possibly Stones first shot on target. Definitely two points dropped

Final Score :Stones Athletic 1-1 Leyton Orient (Burns)

Next up were Clacton Knights.This was a pretty even match with both sides comfortable on the ball.Disciplined defending from Orient left stand in keeper Conlan little to do, but when called upon he responded well with calmness and confidence.
In tight games like this often it’s the fine margins that count and Orient seemed to have found their breakthrough when a Clacton player clearly stepped into his own box to play the ball. It was so clear every Orient player appealed and turned to the ref only to find him with his back to our game as he returned a stray ball to a neighbouring pitch. He couldn’t give what he couldn’t see.

Final Score: Leyton Orient 0-0 Clacton Knights

Our final game was against Romford B; always tough opponents.
Again Orient defended with discipline and resilience and restricted Romford to potshots and again with the ball moved it around confidently and got into lots of good areas. With a bit more belief and confidence we should have really taken one of our chances.
Inexperience really showed though in one second half incident. Orient made a substitution in a break of play but the substituted player hadn’t left the pitch before the substitute came on. The referee immediately produced a blue card and Orient were a man short. Our inexperience shone through from the players involved to the management. Although technically correct, all day the referees had been telling us to hurry up as the schedule was tight and they had to fit four rounds of games in.

Even so, with a man down Orient still defended resolutely but then a freak goal when there appeared no danger saw us fall to our first defeat of the season.
Final score: Leyton Orient 0 Romford B 1

Captain Jason Edwards after the game said he was encouraged by some of the football we played. "We are a work in progress and the more we play together the better we will become.There is a good squad morale and on another day we could conceivably have picked up 7 points.In each of our games a big refereeing decision affected our result, but I was pleased that nobody argued with the referees and we played in the right spirit.Indeed the referees commented that we were a pleasure to referee.
We need to move the ball quicker when we’re in possession, but defensively we were pretty solid.
I still have a lot to learn and it is a steep learning curve for me juggling the roles of key player, captain and interim manager."
Orient squad: Jason Edwards, Tim Conlan, Peter Rains, Paul Newman, Neil Burns, Andy Homer, Mark Harden, Dean Gibson. Goalscorer: Neil Burns
Full Results and scorers
Stones Athletic 1-1 Leyton Orient (Burns).
Leyton Orient 0-0 Clacton Knights
Leyton Orient 0-1 Romford B

Match Report -Jason Edwards