Leyton Orient 1 AFC Telford United 0

Buildbase FA Trophy Semi Final 1^st Leg

Saturday 16^th March

Leyton Orient took a step closer to a Wembley Final appearance after coming through a tight affair against AFC Telford United on Saturday. Macauley Bonne’s second half strike currently means the O’s lead the tie, but there is plenty of work still to be done at New Bucks Head in the 2^nd Leg next weekend.

The Vanarama League North side took 429 fans to the Breyer Group Stadium and they were vociferous throughout. They had something to cheer early on as Daniel Udoh played in Darryl Knights seconds into the contest that required Jamie Turley to mop up. And soon afterwards Ryan Barnett delivered a cross from the right flank that drifted dangerously across Orient’s goalmouth. But the O’s created the first real effort of the game in the 7^th minute when a Dale Gorman free kick was headed just wide by Bonne.

The visitors managed to get a few balls into the Orient box, but Brill cut them all out. At the other end Andy Wycherley palmed away a Matt Harrold header, with the same O’s player also flicking another speculative header over the bar.

In the 21^st minute a useful ball into the box fed Udoh, but Marvin Ekpiteta put in a tackle to end the danger. Harrold placed another header wide soon afterwards, and on the half hour mark Dan Happe had to head away a Telford free kick.  Neither team had created anything to clear cut but in the 34^th minute a nice bit of skill by Barnett took him past Brophy, with his cross to Knights resulting in a shot being rifled off which Ekpiteta blocked. It had perhaps been Telford’s best chance created, but four minutes later the O’s created an even better opportunity to break the deadlock – but fluffed their lines. Jobi McAnuff had his initial shot parried by Wycherley but Bonne could then only drag his rebound wide. McAnuff was to provide Bonne with another ball, this time from a knock down just before the break; on this occasion Bonne was able to fire off a better shot but this time Theo Streete blocked and then cleared Telford’s lines.

The first half had been scrappy but Telford were able to have a go at Brill’s goal inside the opening two minutes of the restart. Udoh was able to weave his way through Orient’s defence but could only drill his shot wide. The O’s fired a couple of blanks themselves before finding a way to break the deadlock in the 54^th minute. A long thow-on by Turley was headed down by Harrold to Bonne who turned and fired into the bottom right hand corner.

The O’s were able to have a few further sniffs of goal. A Brophy corner in the 64^th minute was headed wide by Bonne; Clay had a shot parried by Wycherley soon afterwards, then Harrold had one more attempt, getting on the end of Turley weighted pass but unable to get his header on target. Harrold was to be substituted in the 80^th minute but for me had certainly put in a shift and had in many ways been a very effective target man.

Telford had been under the cosh but were able to win a corner in the 75^th minute after Brendon Daniels had whipped in a cross that took a deflection. The resulting corner fell to Andre Brown whose shot was blocked by Ekpiteta. The O’s defender was solid throughout and made a number of important challenges.

Josh Koroma looked lively once he was introduced into the fray; he had a shot blocked by Shane Sutton, and then the same Telford players had to become Captain Marvel as he headed a Turley shot off the line in the 78^th minute.

Having ridden their luck, Telford were now up the other end as Knights drilled over a free kick that Brill punched away. The O’s stopper had to get down low to save an Udoh shot in the closing stages after the Telford player had manged to get himself some space to fire off one final effort.

The O’s did enough to win the game but the slender lead means the 2^nd Leg next weekend remains an equally balanced affair with Wembley within Orient’s grasp – but not too far away from Telford’s either.

Leyton Orient: Dean Brill, Sam Ling (Josh Coulson 46’), Jobi McAnuff (Capt), Craig Clay, Macauley Bonne, Dan Happe, James Brophy, Dale Gorman (Josh Koroma 67’), Matt Harrold (James Dayton 80’), Marvin Ekpiteta, Jamie Turley.

Scorer – Macauley Bonne (54’).

AFC Telford United: Andy Wycherley, Ross White, Steph Morley (Brendon Daniels 19’), Jon Royle, Shane Sutton (Capt), Theo Streete, Ryan Barnett (Dom Smith 82’), James McQuilkin, Amari Morgan-Smith (Andre Brown 64’), Daniel Udoh, Darryl Knight.