I thought we put up a decent fighting display although it was clear Taylor and Harrison couldn't cope at the back although they tried their best. Everytime Orient came forward they looked like scoring.
It was Tranmere who started the brighter for the first 10 mins with Zola looking impressive. But it was obvious to see Orient would score a few with the ease they cut through our defence. Tremarco clearly was not fit enough and was being outpaced time and time again. He was running like a penguin to be honest. Orient took the lead after we failed to clear a corner and their defender shot through the crowded penalty area and into the back of the net. Nothing Ward could do about it. Not long after they got in down our right and Taylor was out paced and they had an easy second. They could have had more but for a few outstanding saves by Ward.
We did look threatening though when we came forward and Zola continued to cause their defence problems and was being unfairly man handled by their centre back on numerous occasions. We did get back into the game when the Orient defence went missing and Greenacre popped up un marked to get one back. You could tell we weren't going to get anything out of the game though because for all our effort they just cut down the right again and Jarvis had an easy second and Orients third.
Second half we had more possession than them I felt although they created a number of clear cut chances early on. Jarvis missed a sitter and then Ward made another 3 outstanding saves to keep it at 3-1. We pushed forward and had a decent spell of pressure but for all the balls we put in their box their was no one on the end of them. The closest we came to getting another was a great 25 yard effort from Zola which was tipped over. I think Orient had realised they had done enough to win by the last quarter of an hour though.
I was pleased with how we fought after going 2-0 down as we could easily have folded. One thing I was disappointed with was that Shuker had their left back on a yellow early in the game and then stopped trying to take him on after that. If the left back had been sent off it may levelled the game with us having a makeshift defence. There was no way we would have conceeded those goals with a proper defence and I think we would have had 3 points if we had Goodison, McCready and Stockdale yesterday. On a bright note apart from one flap at a cross in the second half Gavin Ward was outstanding and my man of the match. It could honestly have been 7 or 8 with him. At least we should have a defence back for the next game anyway.
