A devastated Russell Slade branded those who booed his side off ‘a joke’ after Leyton Orient saw their once promising season threaten to unravel, thanks to a late wonder strike from Oldham Athletic’s Korey Smith which deepened the gloom around a tense Brisbane Road.
The Oldham captain rescued a deserved point for the Latics with a dipping 25-yard volley and all but ended Orient’s already-fading automatic promotion hopes.
Scott Cuthbert’s headed goal on the stroke of half-time had seemed destined to secure a much-needed three points for the O’s, but Slade’s men were unable to hold on in front of an increasingly agitated home crowd.
And the clearly irate Orient manager gave a scathing assessment of the home support as the fans turned on their team at the final whistle.
“The work ethic and the commitment [of the players] is unquestioned,” said Slade.
“It’s just so sad – our crowd in the first half, they just don’t get behind the team. I find that so disappointing. And then we even get booed off. It’s a joke.”
Slade slams “keyboard wizards”
Slade also reacted angrily to criticisms from fans on online message boards, who have labelled the club’s recent slump in form unacceptable.
“It is [an achievement to be third], and we want more and we’re fighting for more. The keyboard wizards, they’re criticising me, saying we’ve given up.”
The players will now have to pick themselves up for Saturday’s home game against Bradford, with the O’s boss adamant that his side’s season is not over, despite suffering a third successive game without a win and admitting there were no positives to be taken from the result.
“As a manager I’ve not given up, this team’s not given up. I’m frustrated tonight, I’m frustrated for the players. It will be difficult [to lift ourselves] but they are a good group so we’ll deal with it, we’ll crack on with it and we’ll be ready.”
Slade insisted that his side had had enough chances to win the game, despite the visitors having more possession and twice as many shots on target.
“We’ve had five wonderful opportunities tonight to score goals, we’ve just taken one unfortunately,” he said after the game. “Scott Cuthbert took the goal well, and he had another marvellous opportunity as well.”
Tuesday’s disappointment follows a draw at Walsall and defeat at home to Brentford in the last two weeks: a run which has seen Orient fall out of the automatic promotion spots which they had made their own during the first half of the season.
Last night’s defeat was made even more frustrating by the news that second-placed Brentford had slipped up away to Rotherham – meaning that a win would have cut the gap to the promotion spots to just a single point.
However, Smith’s late equalizer means that the East London side remain three points behind their rivals, who hold two games in hand. With just seven games remaining this season, Orient look extremely unlikely to avoid the lottery of the playoffs.
The O’s also face something of an injury crisis in midfield, after Marvin Bartley left the field after twenty minutes with a suspected hamstring injury, and Lloyd James appearing to struggle late on. “All these things come at once sometimes,” said Slade. “We’ll just have to deal with them one by one.”
Additional reporting by Jacob Mignano
