Defeat at Bees ends Orient's run

Leyton Orient's unbeaten run of 14 league games came to an end on the other side of London, thanks to a 2-1 defeat at Brentford.

A slow start to the game and two first-half goals for the Bees meant Orient faced an uphill challenge to keep the run going and unfortunately only a Scott McGleish reply in the second-period wasn't quite enough.

Our performances over the last 14 games and in general over the last few months have more often than not warranted the points but yesterday's uncharacteristic display probably didn't deserve anything more than we got.

Marcus Bean latched onto a Gary Alexander flicked header to drill past Jamie Jones as early as the 6th minute and Orient were lucky not to be chasing an embarrassing total even before Alexander added the second.

In the 24th minute, with Brentford completely dominating the play, the former Orient striker finished from close range after Myles Weston once again found space amongst the Orient defence and crossed from wide.

Two things in particular really worried me from the first-half showing, one being the sloppy defending that Orient fans haven't seen in a while and the second was the way Brentford seemed to figure the O's out even before the first whistle.

By stopping Orient playing out from the back or getting any rhythm going, the Bees strangled any chance the O's had in the first-half.

Whilst I greatly admire the passing football that Russell Slade has installed amongst this team, there needs to be a plan B from the players when it comes to getting a goal (in a similar fashion to the problems Arsenal often face, just with the less glitz found in the lower leagues). This was something we didn't see enough of yesterday, especially in the first period.

The bad defending was a concern but something that hopefully can be more easily sorted out, as all the fans have seen how well the team can play at the back.

Unfortunately yesterday's defending issues buried the game and the points before Orient had the chance to get going at the other end of the pitch.

The half-time break gave Slade the perfect opportunity to try and get the team sorted out and whatever was said in the dressing room seemed to have the desired effect.

Into the second-half Orient had more purpose about their play, building with more speed and finally giving the opposition something to think about in attack.

The O's gave themselves a chance ten minutes after the restart thanks to McGleish. He has struggled to have any effect on game in recent weeks but Scotty did what he does best and grabbed the poacher's goal, knocking the ball home from a Charlie Daniel's corner.

We had a few opportunities to score the equaliser, Dean Cox (who was probably our best player going forward on the day) only managed to find the keeper with a shot just after the hour whilst Adam Barrett's header late on was saved.

Brentford could and really should have made the game save during the second half, only Jamie Jones and a bizarre miss from sub Jeffrey Schulpp denied the Bees.

But it stayed at 2-1 and ended the O's amazing run. Whilst a defeat is always disappointing, I don't believe yesterday's result has ended the team's push for the play-offs.

We were always going to lose at some point, keeping up an unbeaten run till the end of the season in a tight league with so many games in the schedule would be near impossible.

Bouncing back is just as important as putting a good run together and Tuesday's home game against Dagenham & Redbridge is the perfect opportunity to do this.

Brentford: Lee (Moore 45+2); O'Connor, Legge, Osborne, Neilson; Reed, Diagouraga, Bean, Weston (Wood 80); Alexander, Grabban (Schlupp 73)

Leyton Orient: Jones; Whing (Forbes 70), Omozusi, Barrett, Daniels; Spring, Smith, Carroll (Mpoku 79), Cox; Revell (Téhoué 69), McGleish

Dean Cox can take the most credit from the disappointing display and Coxy once again looked Orient's best player on the ball, unfortunately he was often alone in threatening the Brentford defence yesterday. 'It's the first half that will frustrate me and annoy me. I don't think we got out of the blocks very well.

'The second half was a complete contrast, we were much the better side and created four or five good openings, where you'd expect us to score two goals.

'But we gave ourselves a mountain to climb and you don't always come back from 2-0 down.

'It's all about bouncing back now. What I will say is that previously we have done that well.'

What did you think of yesterday's game? Do you think we can bounce back on Tuesday? Leave your comments below...



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