Gloucester City 0-2 Leyton Orient

Before The Match

Looking at our cup fixtures on paper we have two non-league sides and realistically we should qualify for the Third Round with ease but this is the FA Cup so whenever your drawn against lesser opposition, there are a few nerves and this fixture against Gloucester City was no different.

I expected changes from the squad that beat Shrewsbury Town on Saturday and I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen a return to action for our very own sicknote, Jamie Jones. That move was nto forthcoming but there was starting places for Mathieu Baudry, Dean Cox and Ryan Brunt who had all been subs for the Shrewsbury game at the weekend.


The Game

I tuned into Radio London 94.9 for the game and it was obvious in minutes that the two commentators had little clue of lower league football and were as annoying as listening to the dull tones of Adrian Chiles talk up another exciting England friendly.

I persevered and it became pretty clear that the co-commentator was not a fan of our forward line, especially Ryan Brunt. Brunt's form seems to have detiriorated recently and according to BBC London's fine commentary team, his first touch was utter dross.

The first half was dull from what I could gather. Gloucester had come out quickly and Orient had to weather the storm before making a comeback just before half time. It seemed to me that the half time whistle came at the wrong time for Orient as we'd gained a foothold in the game and had put pressure on the non-leaguer's goal.

I give up listening at half time as I couldn't bare the nonsense spouted by the commentators and due to the fact the game had largely been dull till the last five minutes of the half.

The second half was spent refreshing the Orient Twitter feed and it seemed that as the game went on we gained a foothold in the game. However, that foothold wasn't being converted into goals which was worrying as the game wore on. We have a long November that sees us play three midweek games as well as a long trip to Carlisle United. It seemed to show that we needed to be more of a threat when Kevin Lisbie was thrown on with half hour left to try and grab a goal.

My worry of a replay and yet another midweek game was eased in two minutes as the referee's full time whistle was fast approaching. Dean Cox's cross met David Mooney with 87 minutes on the clock and without time to blink there was a second, this time through the man who set up the first, Cox.


After The Game

Thank god for fitness, hey? I believe that it was our own fitness levels that won that game, not necessarily the fact that we have far superior players than Gloucester. We needed to go out and be smart against the non-league Tigers and we did that and despite the fact we had to wait so long for our goals, we still did a thoroughly professional job.

The goal was to reach the second round and we've done that. We now face Alfreton Town, a Blue Square Premier side, away in the next round hoping that we'll get past them and get a money spinning tie in the Third Round against a Man United, Liverpool or even a small club like West Ham.

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