Peterborough United - Play Off Semi Final 1st Leg - 10th May

Honours are still even after the first leg.

The Match - On a pitch more akin to the Battle of the Somme than a professional football team, both teams battled it out to try and get a hold of the semi final. As it turns out, we're no closer to finding out who will be heading to Wembley on the 25th. But still, with the O's creating enough chances to win the game, if we can play on Tuesday like we did today then who knows if we'll be hearing Rocking All Over The World?

The London Road Pitch

Assombalonga unsurprisingly got himself another goal, his 33rd in all competitions, but whilst we prefer to spend £1.5 million on a new stand rather than a striker, he was kept relatively quiet by Clarke and Baudry.

There were several occasions throughout the game where a steadier foot on the difficult surface could have led to a goal, particularly in the first half. Mooney, Cox and Lisbie all had great opportunities in front of goal only to find themselves face down on the turf with the ball scrambled away. 

The Players - So much has been made of the team spirit this season, and once again it came to the fore. It was great to see the players and staff gathered in a huddle after the game, a show of unity that is rarely seen on the pitch.

Mo fully deserved his man of the match award for the way he tormented the full back throughout the second half. It wasn't the most convincing of tap-ins for the goal, but we'll let him off.

The defence was solid as always. As previously mentioned, Clarke and Baudry kept Assombalonga relatively quiet whilst Cuthbert had another superb game at right back. 

The Manager - At times this season, the changes that Slade has made have left some fans scratching their heads. Today, he got it absolutely spot on. With Lundstram struggling on the difficult pitch, he replaced him with James and Batt was brought on for the tiring Lisbie. Both players had a part in the move for the goal so hats off to Slade for getting it right. 

Hats off

Up Next -  The second leg. With the game at home and hopefully on a much better pitch, we should be able to get the ball down more than we were perhaps able to today. It's only half time, there's still a long way to go, plenty of football left to play and a whole host of other clichés still on their way. Hopefully Sir Alex will make an appearance this time. 

Up the O's!

Follow me on Twitter! - @lauriehann

Peterborough United - 8th February 2014

The O's suffer back to back defeats for the first time this season.

A quick review - It was a game we probably didn't deserve to win, but there's no doubt we didn't deserve to lose it in that manner.

The first half was pretty even, Orient playing some lovely attacking football and we could easily have been leading at half time with Cox's volley thumping the post. It wasn't all one way traffic though as Peterborough could easily have been given a penalty for a handball and they too played some nice football.

In the second half we pressed higher up the pitch, and we took the lead after a lovely free kick from James on the right. Peterborough always looked dangerous though, Jalal tipping Assombalonga's curling effort onto the post just before we scored, with the rebound fired wide when it seemed easier to score. The equaliser came from a set piece which was very disappointing. Clarke being beaten to the first header and Assombalonga given the freedom of Leyton to head home. The winner again could've been avoided, Rowe given too much time and space to fire in a shot from the edge of the box, which Jalal should've done better with.

In a game that was tighter than a pair of Simon Cowell's trousers, Slade should've brought on Bartley to shore up the midfield for the last 10 minutes. Alas, he brought on a striker who sometimes plays in midfield in Simpson and although we could've scored again after he came on, it was the wrong change to make.

Man of the match - David Mooney. Took his goal nicely and was easily our most effective attacking player. He won most of his headers and linked up nicely, particularly when Lisbie came on. It's clear to me that our best strike pair is Lisbie and Mooney, purely due to the great understanding they have. Although that's not difficult, has anyone heard Dagnall's accent? Subtitles definitely required.

What next? - Bristol City. If we're to maintain our push for a spot in the top 2 this game is massive. Yesterday was our game in hand after Brentford and Wolves had their games postponed and although we lost, we have another opportunity to go top this Tuesday. What we have to ensure is that we start to see out games like we have done so many times this season, we could easily have had another 4 points if we had seen the last 2 games out better. Still, that's all part of supporting Orient.

Image of the day -

This was how the away end was left by the "Posh" fans. I can only presume their nickname is ironic. 

Up the O's!

Follow me on Twitter! - @lauriehann