Sky Bet League One
LEYTON ORIENT 1 BLACKPOOL 0
JOHN CHUBB at the Gaughan Group Stadium
@JohnCphoenixfm
In terms of entertainment, it wasn’t quite up there with the thrilling match at Brisbane Road a couple of Tuesdays ago, when Leyton Orient edged out Northampton Town by the odd goal in seven.
But O’s fans had no complaints with the eventual outcome of this game, as a second half strike from Ollie O’Neill proved enough for Richie Wellens’ men to beat a Blackpool side who began the evening one place above them in the League One table.
Wellens made only one change from the starting 11 who won 2-1 at Oxford United on Saturday, as Jordan Brown began in midfield with Darren Pratley dropping to the bench.
Before kick-off the crowd paid tribute to former Orient favourite Stan Bowles – who died on Saturday aged 75 – with a minute’s applause.
A rather nondescript opening ten minutes was interrupted by Blackpool creating the first real goalscoring chance of the match, when Karamoko Dembele provided a cross from the right of the penalty area from which Jake Beesley narrowly failed to connect.
That was shortly before Jordan Gabriel struck for the visitors, but his effort sailed some distance over the bar.
But Orient had to wait until the 23rd minute of the match for their first real opportunity.
A stray Tangerine pass was intercepted by Shaq Forde, who laid the ball on for Ruel Sotiriou but the home striker couldn’t quite connect, before Brown had an effort blocked by Blackpool goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw who was tested properly for the first time.
The home side started to press at this stage and Tom James had a long-range effort in the 28th minute, which went wide to the right of Grimshaw.
With a few minutes to go until half-time, George Moncur had another effort for the O’s but it was easily gathered by Grimshaw.
The deadlock was finally broken seven minutes into the second half, when Sotiriou outpaced the Tangerines’ defence, placed a good ball from the left which found Ollie O’Neill and the January signing from Fulham placed the ball past Grimshaw with his left foot to put the O’s 1-0 in front.
A serious injury to visiting substitute Andy Lyons, who had only come on for the second half resulted in play being held up whilst he was attended to by the medical team, before being stretchered off and replaced by Matty Virtue.
The remainder of the match saw decent spells of possession for both sides, but with both sides having mostly defended well throughout the evening there wasn’t really anything in the way of actual goalscoring chances, until the fourth minute of time added on when Orient almost doubled their lead.
Sotiriou had a shot pushed away by Grimshaw, and O’Neill hit the rebound just wide to the Blackpool stopper’s left.
But it finished 1-0, so the O’s moved up a place to eighth at the expense of their opponents on the night.
Wellens’ side now have five wins in their last seven matches and with 11 games remaining this season, they are still very much in with a chance of forcing their way into the play-off picture.
LEYTON ORIENT (Head Coach: Richie Wellens) – Sol Brynn, Tom James Jordan Brown (Darren Pratley 81), Ruel Sotiriou, Brandon Cooper, George Moncur (Rob Hunt 45), Idris El Mizouni, Shaq Forde (Max Sanders 75), Omar Beckles ©, Ollie O’Neill, Ethan Galbraith (Khayon Edwards 89).
BLACKPOOL (Head Coach: Neil Critchley) – Daniel Grimshaw, Calum Connolly, Jordan Gabriel (Andy Lyons 45, Matty Virtue 59), Matt Pennington, Ollie Norburn © (Sammy Carey 85), George Byers (Albie Morgan 60), Kyle Joseph (Kylian Kouassi 60), Karamoko Dembele, Jake Beesley, Marvin Ekpiteta, CJ Hamilton.
Referee: Ben Speedie
Attendance: 7198 (including 549 Blackpool fans)
