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Orient v Rovers

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WildRover

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Well, a 3-1 win at home back at the 1st game of the season, with Orient now midtable, and an erratic set of results at home. Going for 2-0 to the SWA, Stockton and Amoo one a piece, together with fingers crossed Donny and Swindle mess up...
 
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This game looks tougher than it did a month ago. Orient are in decent form having held Swindon and Brentford in the last couple of weeks and have some good players, such as Rowlands, Cox and Vincelot, who arrived this week from Brighton. However, their best striker Lisbie is still unavailable.

Added to the above, their pitch is even worse than ours (if that is possible) and won't be conducive to passing football.

We desperately need a win to preserve a top two spot and the performances of Amoo and Stockton up front might be crucial in deciding whether we get it. We won our last two games at Brisbane Road with a considerably poorer side, so hopefully we will make it three in a row on Saturday.
 

drwhoman

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ORIENT

A win would be great. See Daniels has signed until the end of the season. Does this mean Gibson will not be back? He really would add more solidity to the defence. Also, I see that Wallace is now likely to be unavailable until the end of Feb which will make it three months out. They have done well to stay close to the top in his absence although this must be partially down to the inconsistencies of other leading teams. We should make the top six but the top two? the fact that O'Halloran and Daniels are not as good as Cassidy and Gibson might prove crucial as to where we end up.
 

Ian

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Yeah, the team just isn't as strong when you take out Wallace and add in O'Halloran and Daniels in place of Cassidy and Gibson. However, it's still a very good team and if they put in the effort like they did in the second half against Carlisle and like they did against Brentford, we'll come away with something from the game.

I suspect Rovers will be up for this one and a win will keep us on track. I'm sick of saying it now and you guys are probably sick of reading it, but this really is make or break time. If we win a few, we could take a commanding lead at the top, lose a few, we could be a few places down.

The three teams directly below us are all playing at home so it really is vital the lads give it all they've got. Don't want us losing top spot.
 
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We should make the top six but the top two? the fact that O'Halloran and Daniels are not as good as Cassidy and Gibson might prove crucial as to where we end up.

O'Halloran is not even playing now, even with Akpro out, so the real comparison is between Cassidy and Amoo / Stockton. While we will miss Jake we still have enough up front to sustain a challenge for the top two.

Gibson will be back with us as soon as he is fit. I agree he is better than Daniels, but our defensive record in the league has still been extremely good in his absence, with the exception of the one-off at Swindon.

No reason at all why we should be settling for play-offs rather than auto: the injury situation now is nowhere near as bad as it was six weeks ago and we stayed top throughout the period when we had numerous key players missing. Akpro and Wallace will both be back in 2-3 weeks.
 

Boz

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I would agree we're not as strong without Cassidy and Gibson, the results of the last couple of months by comparison to the start of the season demonstrate that. Personally, I'd say Gibson is actually the bigger loss. Greg Blundell did mention him in the physio column, which implied he'd be ready to start training soon, so maybe ready next month...

Turning to the game, we've done well on recent trips to whatever Brisbane Road is named now. If we were up against the same side as the season opener, I'd feel very confident, but Orient have moved on considerably. No ex-player links as Chorley and Brunt have moved on. I doubt that their JPT 2nd leg will be weighing much on their minds and expect this to be a tough fixture.

Rovers likely to be as last week, save Stockton replacing JLAA. If we're to stay top, it's a game we'll need to win as the two teams below have fairly comfy looking home fixtures. I don't believe we'll manage that and reckon 1-1.
 
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I would agree we're not as strong without Cassidy and Gibson, the results of the last couple of months by comparison to the start of the season demonstrate that.

Cassidy actually played in half of those games. The players missing in our poorest run of form this season in November / December were Akpro, Bell Baggie and Wallace.

We have won 5 of our last 7 games without the two players mentioned, as good a spell as any this season in terms of points per game.
 

Boz

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True, although Cassidy's goalscoring seemed to tail off towards the end of his stint here.
 
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True, although Cassidy's goalscoring seemed to tail off towards the end of his stint here.

Yes, I think he suffered from the fact that his strike partners in that period were not good enough (Jervis, Ecclestone, O'Halloran). He was effectively playing alone up front in a lot of games.
 
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I'm looking forward to this one and hope I'm not disappointed. Brisbane Road has been a happy hunting ground. We won our first match ever in London back in 1968. I haven't been back since, so I'm hoping to keep up my 100% record! It's a game we should win on form and really must win to avoid sinking into the playoffs. Maybe 2-0 or 2-1, if we get the rub of the green.
 

SonkORLY?

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not a good start, thank god for ofw
 
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Mal

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Ok, I am beginning to think we are fated to go up! How on earth are we still top after two defeats? Hopefully Wallace will be back against Swindon. And that Aggro Aggro has learned his lesson. Looks like we were again slow off the mark again, today. Bad habit that.
 

bigmart

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Unless we improve and quick we will struggle to make the play offs. If results go against us on tuesday we could be 2 points ahead of 7th. As much as we miss Wallace we miss Gibson who for me is far more solid.

We are struggling now for goals, could do with another striker as im not convinced by amoo
 
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