Second-half goals from George Moncur and substitute Charlie Kelman saw Leyton Orient wrap up the League 2 title against Crewe Alexandra at Brisbane Road yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made three changes from last Saturday’s 2-0 home win against Walsall as Tariq Uwakwe came in at left-back, Ryan Finnigan returned to midfield after injury and Courtney Baker-Richardson started up front as Callum Ainley and Elliott Nevitt dropped down to the bench while Charlie Finney missed out after failing a late fitness test.
The opening chance fell to the visitors in the 27th minute with Dan Agyei playing Chris Long in with the forward’s first-time effort flying over the bar before Dave Richards would deny Paul Smyth at the other end a couple of minutes later.
The hosts would win a penalty 5 minutes after the break following Richards palming the ball out into the middle of the box with Agyei bringing down Darren Pratley, the Orient captain on his 38th birthday, with Moncur sending Richards the wrong way from the spot before Lawrence Vigouroux would deny Long after the forward had slipped his marker on 55 minutes. The second goal would come 12 minutes from time after a defensive mix-up between Richards and Luke Offord saw Kelman left with an empty net to roll the ball into.
The next games for the Alex see them travel to Grimsby Town on Tuesday before hosting Swindon Town next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was another game where we shot ourselves in the foot with bad decision-making in defensive positions, this time with Joel Tabiner not dealing with the opening goal on the touchline which saw the Orient man cut in and create an opportunity then another mix-up between keeper and centre-half late in the game to seal the win.
Brisbane Road
League 2
22/04/2023 4:00 pm
Attendance: 8311
Referee: Sam Allison
| Leyton Orient | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moncur, Kelman | |||||||
| Vigouroux | Richards | ||||||
| Hunt | Mellor | ||||||
| Turns | Offord | ||||||
| McCart | McDonald | ||||||
| Sweeney | 79 | Uwakwe | |||||
| Pratley | Thomas | ||||||
| El Mizouni | 56 | Finnigan | 57 | ||||
| Smyth | 79 | Agyei | |||||
| Moncur | Tabiner | 57 | |||||
| Sadlier | 67 | Long | 87 | ||||
| Sotiriou | Baker-Richardson | 78 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Sargeant | Booth | ||||||
| James | 79 | Ainley | 57 | ||||
| Ogie | Griffiths | 57 | |||||
| Clay | Brook | 87 | |||||
| Brown | 56 | Nevitt | 78 | ||||
| Drinan | 79 | Amoo | |||||
| Kelman | 67 | Robertson | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 7 | On Target | 2 |
| 6 | Corners | 8 |
| 14 | Fouls | 12 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 61 | % | 39 |