Leyton Orient will be pleased to have won a hard fought point away at Notts County, but will be disappointed that it was not more.
Manager Russell Slade and his men will rue what might have been after creating enough chances to win the game – Charlie Macdonald’s early goal was ruled out for offside, Jamie Smith rattled the bar when well placed and Romain Vincelot, unchallenged six yards out, failed to find the target with the goal at his mercy.
Had one of these chances gone in, Slade might well have been talking about a late promotion push but instead he was forced to admit that the draw was a poor result for both teams. Realistically, the O’s will now have to win all of their remaining eleven games to sneak a play off place.
County came into the contest unbeaten in five games under their new interim manager Chris Kiwomya, but it was the O’s – set up in the same 4-5-1 formation that was used to good effect away to Sheffield United last week – who started the brighter.
Smith and Martin Rowlands were brought back into the side to beef up midfield and with the attacking trio of Dean Cox, Moses Odubajo and Charlie MacDonald picking up where they impressively left off against Bournemouth, Orient enjoyed plenty of possession early on.
On 10 minutes, MacDonald had the ball in the net after County goalkeeper Bialkowski spilled a speculative effort from Rowlands, but the effort was rightly ruled out for outside.
As so often happens, Orient paid for their failure to turn dominance into goals when County scored with their first meaningful foray into the opposing half on 31 minutes.
The O’s defence was guilty of overplaying and Alan Judge won the ball for the hosts high up the pitch. His sharp pass found its way to his captain Neal Bishop, who finished expertly at the near post for his seventh goal of the season.
Notts County had been completely anonymous as an attacking threat until that point and the scoreline was harsh on the visitors. Rather than licking their wounds, however, the O’s were straight back on the attack and Smith struck the crossbar with a fierce drive from the right side of the penalty area on 33 minutes.
The game opened up in the second half and County’s direct approach caused the O’s back-line problems, substitute Yoann Arquin shooting tamely into Jamie Jones’ hands when presented with a great opportunity to double County’s lead.
Slade rung the changes with his side still trailing on the hour. Kevin Lisbie came on for Smith and slotted into attack alongside MacDonald, while Lee Cook replaced Odubajo on the wing.
Lisbie made an instant impact, his flick on 65 minutes sending MacDonald clear of the County defence. MacDonald cut inside and prepared to shoot before being unceremoniously brought down by Leacock, leaving referee Jeremy Simpson with one of the easiest penalty decisions he will ever have to make.
Lisbie calmly dispatched the spot-kick for his second goal in two games since returning from injury.
The last half hour was fraught throughout as both teams began to tire. The lively Jamal Campbell-Rice had two half chances for County, finding Jones alert on both occasions, and Boucaud was unlucky to see his vicious effort dip and swerve just wide of the Orient goal.
The best chance of all, though, fell to Orient. The impressive Leon McSweeney swung an inviting ball into the County box but Vincelot, just six yards out, was unable to direct his header on target.
Manager Russell Slade told The Hackney Post:
“We’re a little bit disappointed we’ve taken a point, we feel the three were there for the taking. It’s incredible the amount of possession we’ve had. And we’ve hit the crossbar, and had one that’s marginally offside.
“[For their goal] We played a straight ball with somebody under pressure and we shouldn’t have done that. But do we want to play? Of course we want to play. Do we want to lump it? No, we don’t want to lump it. It came from trying to overplay a little bit, and we got caught.
“When it was called off over Christmas here, if we’d got a point that day you’d have been delighted. As it turns out, we were much the better side and it shows how far we’ve come.”
Notts County: Bialkowski, Sheehan, Bishop (c), Liddle, Judge, Zoko (Hughes – 46’) , Cofie (Arquin – 42’), Campbell-Rice, Hollis, Boucaud.
Leyton Orient: Jones, McSweeney, Vincelot, Cuthbert, Baudry, Cox, Smith (Lisbie – 61’), McDonald (Obafemi – 77’), Clarke, Odubajo (Cook – 61’), Rowlands
Attendance: 4,004
