Fans devotion after several rocky years paid off spectacularly this week, with the team’s promotion to League One, writes Phil Veasey
When you’re an Orient fan, it can sometimes seem like there are more lows than highs but maybe part of the magic of following the club is learning how to endure the hard times and navigate the rollercoaster ride that supporting the Os so often becomes. Thankfully, our devotion paid off spectacularly on Tuesday night, when the team won promotion to League One.
Amid the celebrations, my mind raced back to a fateful day on 15th August in 2017. I was walking to the nearby station from Bromley FC, where we had suffered a 6-1 hammering on a dreadful plastic pitch. It was our first season in the National League.
Fearing another relegation, I was struggling to remember what the next league down was even called when I passed two fellow fans, who asked me if this was the all-time Orient low. I optimistically replied that we were well past that nadir. Before the start of the season, the club had had no players at all, whereas now we had new caring owners. Martin Ling, the Director of Football, had assembled a threadbare squad with a sprinkling of new stars to be – Macauley Bonne, Dan Happe – and older experienced heads – such as Jobi McAnuff, Josh Coulson and Craig Clay. The fact that we were even out there playing Bromley was good enough for me.
As it happened, my fears turned out to be unfounded, thanks to the arrival of a new manager Justin Edinburgh mid-way through the season. At the end of his first match – a draining 1-nil defeat away to Solihull Moors – he told the players in frank terms: “I am not here for the sake of it, I am here for the memories!” In the end, he made more memories than we could ever imagine, shepherding the Os to victory in the National League in the next season, ahead of the monied and highly fancied Salford City.
Tragically, the club lost Edinburgh before a ball had even been kicked in the 19/20 season, a departure it arguably took this wonderful close knit club 18 months to grieve. He had been entirely central to the club’s rise and was loved by players and fans alike.
The 21/22 season was sluggish but, as it drew to a close, lightning struck again with the arrival of current manager Richie Wellens. Using virtually the same band of players that he inherited, plus inspired loanees, his direction saw Orient quickly prosper, entering this current season with ambitions for a play-off place.
It turned out our ambitions were too low! The team got off to a flyer – earning 28 points from the first 30 – and never looked back. Wellens’s relentless march towards promotion was punctuated with a series of wonder goals and sell-out crowds. Of course there was the odd Orient wobble but the true believers wouldn’t want it any other way! Wellens had created the best team in the league by far and what a season we have witnessed. A team playing neat and exciting football with standout games like the 3-nil home demolition of Bradford City and an imperious away victory at Salford, with George Moncur scoring a breath-taking team goal!
Like Edinburgh, Wellens constantly talks about making memories and engaging the fans. The only question remaining now is – where can he take us next, and what new memories can he thrillingly unleash? Come on Orient!
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