Sky Bet League One
LEYTON ORIENT 1 ROTHERHAM UNITED 0
JOHN CHUBB at the Gaughan Group Stadium
@JohnCphoenixfm
Leyton Orient picked up their third league victory of the season against Rotherham United at Brisbane Road this evening.
The Os had dropped to 20th place in the standings following their 1-0 defeat at Northampton Town on Saturday, and head coach Richie Wellens made one change to his starting line-up for this match, with skipper Darren Pratley coming in for Dom Ball, who dropped to the bench.
The early stages of the match saw the action mainly confined to the home team’s half, as the South Yorkshire side pressed forward, but they struggled to find a path to goal.
But it wasn’t until just after the half hour mark that we almost saw a goal – and it was the hosts who came close, following a clever move started by Jordan Brown who put a ball out wide to Ollie O’Neill, who found Dan Aygei in the area but his shot wasn’t strong enough to get past Rotherham goalkeeper Cameron Dawson,
With the first half having just entered injury time, O’Neill came a lot closer with a stylish curling effort from just outside the area, which was on its way in but Dawson made a superb stop to ensure that the scoreline remained goalless at the interval.
With 9 minutes of the second half played, O’Neill once again came close to breaking the deadlock from just outside the penalty box – and once again Dawson had to be alert as he tipped the former Fulham midfielder’s strike over the bar.
Then in the 68th minute, the East Londoners’ persistence finally paid off when a well-placed free kick from Tom James found Dan Happe, who sent a towering header into the net to make it 1-0.
A few minutes later, another Orient header – this time from Pratley who had been set up by Aygei – sailed just wide to the right of Dawson.
As the match entered the final quarter of an hour, Rotherham’s Malik Wilks had a good chance at the other end and Josh Keeley in the Orient goal did well to gather his shot at the near post.
With just a minute of normal time remaining, Richie Wellens’ men almost doubled their lead and made sure of victory when an Ethan Galbraith free-kick was just about kept out of the net by Dawson.
Referee Alex Childwicz added on seven minutes of injury time, and despite not adding to their tally the Os held firm and picked up a much needed three points, although other results on the night meant they remained in 20th place in the table.
LEYTON ORIENT (Head Coach: Richie Wellens) – Josh Keeley, Tom James, Dan Happe, Dan Agyei (Jayden Sweeney 90), Jordan Brown, Jack Currie, Darren Pratley (c) (Dom Ball 80), Omar Beckles, Ollie O’Neill, Ethan Galbraith, Charlie Kelman
ROTHERHAM UNITED (Manager: Steve Evans) – Cameron Dawson, Joe Rafferty, Liam Kelly (Cohen Brammall 59), Reece James, Joe Powell, Sam Nombe, Malik Wilks, Zac Jules (Jack Holmes 77), Hakeem Odoffin (c), Cameron Humphreys, Christ Tiehi (Jordan Hugill 85).
Referee: Alex Childwicz
Attendance: 6314 (including 378 Rotherham fans)
