Yeovil Town (h) Preview

Two wins and two clean sheets, what a difference a couple of weeks make. Little over a fortnight ago and I was certain that we were in deep trouble but now the outlook looks a bit brighter at Brisbane Road.

After a dire outing at Crawley Town and I wanted Slade sacked. Hardly a knee-jerk reaction considering our form for the last year. I was pretty certain we'd struggle at Swindon Town and get handed a hiding from Brentford on the tele. How wrong I could be! After two 1-0 wins and a bit of Lady Luck shining on the club we now sit in 16th with a game in hand on our League One rivals.


Orient news

If its not broke, don't fix it. That's the message from VitalOrient to Russell Slade tonight. After changing to 4-4-2 and picking up two wins, Slade mustn't change the squad, unless necessary.

Lloyd James is still struggling with an ankle injury and Scott Cuthbert and Jamie Jones remain sidelined. With no fresh injuries known to us at VitalOrient, we hope that Slade won't change the squad after picking up points against strong sides in Swindon and Brentford.


Yeovil

Yeovil are a team we always seem to struggle against and that has reflected in the last two results between the sides at Brisbane Road. Orient threw away a two goal lead last season and suffered a 5-1 humiliation by The Glovers the season before.

Upon reading that Paul Huntington and Andy Williams left The Glovers in the summer, I really thought that Yeovil could be in for a struggle this season. Williams was a huge influence on Yeovil surviving in League One last season and his 17 goals contributed to many of Yeovil's points last season.

However, I have to credit Gary Johnson, the Yeovil manager. Losing Williams was a blow but Johnson went out and replaced Williams with James Hayter, a player with a wealth of experience at this level. Hayter has already started to fill the boots left behind by Williams and has three goals to his name this season.

Like Orient, Yeovil are tipped by bookmakers, who are allegedly 'in the know', to suffer relegation, yet year-on-year manage to stay in the division. Orient are in their seventh consecutive season in the third tier and Yeovil are in their eighth. The aim for both clubs must be fairly similar. I imagine that both intend on making sure they survive for another year and anything else in League One is an added bonus, whilst wishing for an extended cup run.


Connections

Orient and Yeovil are heavily linked. The most obvious being Russell Slade. Slade managed The Glovers to the Play-Off Final where they were beaten by Blackpool.

Slade managed Paul Terry and Wayne Gray at Yeovil and both players joined Orient in 2007. Terrell Forbes was another man managed by Slade at Yeovil and the Southwark born centre-back joined Orient in 2010.

Marek Stech will start for Yeovil Town tonight and Stech played twice for Orient last season, whilst on loan from West Ham United.

Aaron Brown, a useless giant, also played for both Yeovil and Orient and he can now be found attempting to play football in Malta.


VitalOrient Prediction

0-0

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.