THE GAME
For this New Year’s Day match against Leyton Orient, and his first home game in charge, Head Coach Inigo Calderon made six changes to the side that lost at Stevenage.
The outcome was an improved performance, more goal attempts than the side have managed in recent weeks and a couple of goals; however, the outcome was the same, another defeat.
Nevertheless, his side made a bright start and might have gone ahead after six minutes when Gatlin O’Donkor raced down the left before squaring the ball to Promise Omochere in the box, but Orient keeper Josh Keeley made a point blank save to deny the striker his fifth goal of the season.
Three minutes later, Orient were in front as a quick counter attack saw Sonny Perkins found Ethan Galbraith in space and his shot, from just outside the area, beat Josh Griffiths, hit the post and went in.
It took a 32nd minute penalty to get Rovers back on level terms. Luke Thomas was brought down by Daniel Happe as he scampered into the area and Chris Martin, on for the injured Omochare, sent Keeley the wrong way with the resulting spot kick, to register his first goal of the campaign.
Four minutes later Orient were back in front. Former O’s striker Ruel Sotiriou was adjudged to have committed a foul on the edge of his own area and was booked for the challenge. Jamie Donley’s stunning free kick was curled into the top corner of the net beyond the despairing dive of Griffiths.
When Diallang Jaiyesimi, who had already been booked, pulled at Grant Ward’s shirt in a Rovers counter attack, O’s fans must have held their breath and suspected
a red card was on its way. However, the erratic match official, Alan Young, instead brandished a yellow card to Calderon for protesting at his non decision.
Eight minutes into the second half the visitors scored again. Sousa, who had put in an assured first half performance, slipped when trying to clear, allowing Sonny Perkins to cut the ball back to Charlie Kelman to stab a shot past Griffiths.
Orient then enjoyed a spell of pressure that might have seen them score again and Ollie O’Neill in particular could have had a hat trick as he hit the side netting with one effort and saw Griffiths twice make saves from his shots.
Rovers, though, hit back and Martin scored his, and Rovers’, second goal of the game when he bundled the ball in from Shaq Forde’s ball in from the left. Cue late
Rovers pressure and it looked as though they had secured a last minute equaliser when O’Donkor managed to get the ball in the net from close range. Unfortunately, he used his hand to ‘score’ and for once referee Young made the right call and awarded the O’s a free kick.
In spite of the improved performance, Rovers do, in my opinion, lack a leader on the pitch, someone in the mould of Sam Finley, Paul Coutts or Tony Craig. When Sousa, a young player learning his trade, made the error for the third goal, his captain, hands on hips, simply glared at him instead of putting a consoling arm around his shoulder. The togetherness of the team, often referred to in interviews, wasn’t in evidence at that point and the more experienced players in the side need to step up to the plate and help the younger players in the side.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘I’m disappointed because we wanted to win, especially in front of the fans. I have a mix of emotions. I really enjoyed the first 50 to 60 minutes. Until the third goal, we did a lot of good things. It is not easy. The game is a clear example of two teams in different moments of the season. I think they are in a good run, and you can see they don’t need to do too much to score. They scored two goals without doing too much and we had to do a lot of things because we are in a bad run.
‘I’m happy with the boys because I think it is too easy to start the game well, and the first chance Orient have, they score. So, dealing with that is not easy when you are there, so credit to the boys as I think they tried, and we have to keep doing that.
‘They scored a goal from nowhere, and the second one the same. You get back and make it 1-1, and they score the free kick from a top, top goal. It’s going to be like that. We cannot wait, even the last one, I don’t know if it was a handball or not, but it’s going to be like that when you are there, it’s going to be like that. You’re going to have everything against you. It’s not an excuse. If we start putting in excuses, we’re wasting time. We have to do things right, and that’s it.’ (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
‘We grew into the game and started pretty well, had a couple of chances. We conceded a lot of sloppy goals today as well. But we’re trying to cut them out. At the end of the day, the performances are a bit better, so it’s a step in the right direction. It’s all you can do at the moment. Just try to go out there and give 100 per cent.
‘At the end of the day, we want to win more games. We need to get more points on the board, but I think the boys showed a very competitive side today and showed a good team spirit. Three points is all that matters. So, we’ll try again on the weekend.”
‘Every manager has their own way of playing; it’s just about how quickly we can adapt to it in a short period of time. Since he’s come in, we’ve had quite a lot of games quite quickly. So, it’s just getting the messages on board and trying to put them onto the pitch. Every time a manager comes in, he brings different ideas, and you learn different things from different coaches.’ (Rovers striker Gatlin O’Donkor)
‘I thought at times we were really good and could have scored more but then coming here, first home game under a new manager, I have to take my hat off to them. They stayed in the game. They kept going. We obviously played them about three weeks ago and the intensity levels that they showed today was a hell of a lot more than what they showed three weeks ago so it was a difficult game.
‘At 3-1 up I would have liked us to have gone on and got a fourth, but their crowd got behind them and I thought they were excellent today especially in the last twenty minutes or so. That’s the most chances we’ve given away in a long time but, really, it was all about getting the result.’ (Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens.
