Orient - O's Gain First Point

In a game between two poor sides, a 0-0 draw was the outcome as neither side had a cutting edge in front of goal. However, Orient managed to pick up their first point of the 2011/12 season.

With the departure of Alex Revell during the week, the starting forwards were Jamie Cureton and David Mooney, Lee Butcher was back in goal due to David Button picking up an injury during the week that will sideline the loanee for 2 months and Dean Cox started despite being ill all week.

The first fifteen minutes of the game gave the impression that Orient were on for another hammering away from home. We were lucky to not be one down early on when a poor pass from Butcher to Charlie Daniels was picked up by Alex Mendy but Butcher made amends by saving with his feet. Chances were haad by David Mooney and Marc Laird but neither shot was enough to put Chesterfield's Tommy Lee under too much pressure. Jack Lester should have done far better for the Spireites in the first half when a cross from the Chesterfield left fell to the unmarked Lester who fired his volley high over Butcher's goal.

The best chance of the first half fell to Chesterfield and specifically Craig Westcarr in first half stoppage time. A Danny Whittaker corner fell to the feet of Westcarr who turned and shot neatly but his shot was turned away on the line by Laird. Westcarr got the ball back from the initial Orient clearance but much like most shots in this game, it failed to hit the target as he drilled it into the side netting.

The second half was a damp squib. Neither team had the upper hand after the break but Orient could have been saved by the fact that Lester was stretchered off with a broken arm. An innocuous ball into the Orient box was turned away by Butcher, who accidently clashed with Lester, who then landed awkwardly. The Chesterfield fans behind the goal saw something hardly anyone else did and were wanting a penalty but their was no chance of that.

The introduction of Dean Morgan for the newly promoted side, an ex-O, sparked Chesterfield back into life towards the end of the second half and Morgan tempted the Orient goal with a number of good crosses.

Perhaps the best chance of the second half fell to Dean Cox. A cross in from Orient's left fell to the unmarked Orient winger but Cox's header failed to hit the target or even test Lee in the Chesterfield net.

Overall, the game was played by two poor teams who had no cutting edge in front of goal. Both teams offered decent goal scoring attempts but neither team really tested the opposition goalkeeper and that told with the result. Reading The Sun on the train up to Chesterfield, I read that Stephen Dawson was making excuses. I say that because before the season stated, everyone at the club were quoted in the media as saying 'we will go one better this season' but now Dawson has all but said 'we overachieved last season and our goal must be survival.' A horrific back track in my opinion, yes we did over achieve last season, but I think with our squad survival shouldn't be a goal at all, I'm not saying we should be at the top end of League One but staying up shouldn't be our target. However, I would take 20th right now.

Terrell Forbes. Our best defender and having missed much of pre-season, Forbes was back in time to help Orient reach their first point and clean sheet of the season.

Lee Butcher looked far more comfortable and confident in the Orient goal, Ben Chorley's tackling kept us in the game in the first half and Elliot Omozusi dealt well with no cover in front of him.

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