Seems like only yesterday we were previewing a Bristol Rovers game against Leyton Orient. Well, it was, almost!
The sides met at Brisbane Road, now known as the Gaughan Group Stadium, on Tuesday 3rd December and The O’s ran out comfortable 3-0 winners; in fact, they were three goals to the good at half time thanks to strikes from Dan Happe, Ollie O’Neil and Dan Agyei. Rovers didn’t register a shot on target all night.
So we meet again on New Year’s Day, but Orient are far from being new opponents as this will be the 106th league meeting between the sides
The first 105 meetings have seen 42 Rovers wins, 38 Orient victories and 25 draws. Rovers have scored 158 goals to Orient’s 152.
The first league meetings between the sides took place over the Easter weekend of 1930 when a goalless draw at Eastville on Good Friday, 18th April, was followed by a 3-0 win for Orient on Easter Monday (21st April) in the return fixture.
Last season saw a 1-1 draw when the sides met at The Memorial Stadium on 28th November 2023, when Grant Ward scored for Rovers and Orient’s equaliser came from a last minute Tristan Crama own goal. The return fixture on 2nd March 2024 saw Chris Martin score the only goal of the game to give Rovers victory.
Two members of our current playing squad have also appeared for The O’s; Ruel Sotiriou scored 35 goals in 153 league games and Shaq Forde nine goals in 40 appearances. They are just two of more than 20 players who have turned out for both sides.
In the post war period, 17 players have made their Rovers league debut against Orient, a list that includes current Rovers skipper Scott Sinclair who made his first appearance for Rovers on Boxing Day 2004, going on as a late substitute in a 1-1 draw at The Mem. Twenty years ago; belated congratulations, Scott!
The seven meetings between the sides in the FA Cup has seen three wins for Rovers, three draws, and one win for
Orient which came in the very first meeting in the competition, a 1-0 home win on 11th January 1930.
The three League Cup meetings have yielded two wins for The O’s and one draw while the three Trophy games have resulted in two wins for Rovers and one draw. In the aftermath of our win at Brisbane Road in December 2020, O’s manager Kenny Jackett was sacked, and former Rovers striker Matt Harrold was given the role of caretaker manager and was in charge for three games before the appointment of Richie Wellens.
In case you’re wondering, there’s only one side we have met more times in the League and that’s Southend United (108 meetings to date).
Current league standings see Orient in 10th place with 31 points from 22 games, while Rovers are in 20th place with 22 points from 22 games.
Both sides played their final league fixture of 2024 on 29th December, Rovers losing 3-0 at Stevenage, where Jamie Lindsay received a red card. Orient were 2-0 home winners against Cambridge United when Ollie O’Neill and Jamie Donley scored the all important goals.
Orient are on a little bit of a roll, having taken 16 of the last 18 points available to them and they haven’t conceded in that time, either. Rovers, meanwhile, haven’t taken all three points from a game since the 1-0 win at Mansfield on 23rd November last year.
Of the 52 home league games against Orient we have won 25 of them – here’s hoping for number 26 on the first day of 2025!
New Head Coach Inigo Calderon will be looking to win his first home game in charge and we are sure that he will receive a fantastic reception from all Gasheads in attendance.