LEYTON ORIENT 0-3 NOTTS COUNTY
STEWART '70
JEFF HUGHES '76
SAM '90+7
I really don't get Keith Curle. There, I said it. For the first time that I can remember, Notts have a manager who is a bit like a mystical football deity that I just can't work out. Yet again, Notts' trip to Orient seemed to follow the carefully constructed yet utterly anarchic path that Curle had constructed for it, with the first hour making absolutely no sense at all before the Magpies sprung into action, scoring three late goals to secure what looks like a comfortable win over the struggling O's.
Orient have had a strange old season. Having missed out on the play-offs at the death last year, and having on the face of it not lost too many key players in the summer, they could reasonably have expected to challenge again. It took them a month to gain their first point in League One this season though and, a small period in the winter excepted, they've had a nightmare year. The sale of Charlie Daniels to Bournemouth in January didn't help, but they've really struggled to replace the Spurs loanees Tommy Carroll, Paul-José Mpoku and Harry Kane who all contributed to their success last year. Their form at Brisbane Road has been notably poor, with the worst record in the division having seen just three games out of twenty where Orient have scored a second half goal.
The stats looked to be on Notts' side then, but that wasn't how things worked out early on. With Curle having named a side that can only be described as surprising - including Louis Harris making his full debut in midfield - Orient started the brighter of the two sides and had the first effort, with Jimmy Smith firing over the bar from twenty five yards. With Notts doing a far from convincing job of trying to pretend that they knew what sort of formation they were supposed to be playing in, the hosts really began to take control of possession, but their fragile confidence was evident as soon as they got near the goal as Lisbie headed hopelessly off target when well placed. At the other end, Alan Judge picked the ball up in space but his 25 yard shot flew wide and didn't really look like troubling Jamie Jones.
Stuart Nelson, returning to his former club, did happily seem to be having one of his good days as he twice denied Lisbie, first from a near post flick and then from an attempted lob when the former Ipswich striker raced clear. As the hosts cranked up the pressure to a level of mild annoyance, Smith again had an effort, but found Nelson in inspired form between the sticks. As former Chelsea trainee Smith again failed to really trouble Nelson, this time with a free header, it was beginning to dawn on NCM that Curle's tactics didn't really matter anyway because Orient were about as likely to score as Ben Burgess faced with an overhead kick.
After the break Notts' system went from bizarre to truly mind-bending, as the anonymous but talented Bogdanovic was sent to the left wing, allowing Hamza Bencherif to spend the first fifteen minutes of the half dicking about as a lone striker. Notts did finally create a chance of note, however, when Alan Judge's looping cross was volleyed high into the East End sky by Jeff Hughes. Then, with an hour gone, Keith Curle decided that it was time for his football manager act, as Lee Hughes and Gavin Mahon were brought on for Bencherif and Harris. Almost instantly, Notts had a shape, a tempo and a clue. Within ten minutes, they were ahead.
Alan Sheehan knocked a hopeful free kick into the box and the Orient defending suddenly entered the calamitometer somewhere between haphazard and downright suicidal, as Terrell Forbes basically rugby tackled his own goalkeeper as he tried to claim a cross, allowing Damion Stewart to pounce on the loose ball. To be fair to a player with a pre-disposed genetic mistrust of using his feet, let alone his left one, Stewart still had an awful lot to do but managed to squeeze his shot into just about the only part of the goal left unguarded. Almost straight from kick off, Adam Reed had the ball in the net for Orient but he was so clearly offside no one really noticed, whilst Bogdanovic found space on the right and crossed for Lee Hughes, whose improvised flick was brilliantly clawed away by Jamie Jones.
Notts seemed to be taking control, however, and they soon had the second goal that killed Orient off. It was a lovely goal, too, displaying comfortably the best football of the entire game. Alan Sheehan found Alan Judge, who quickly spun and played an inch perfect through ball wide to Lloyd Sam, who teased and toyed with Ryan Dickson before standing up a perfect cross to the far post, where makeshift captain Jeff Hughes couldn't really miss. Lisbie was once again thwarted by Nelson as the O's tried to respond, whilst Lee Hughes was twice denied at the other end as he tried to end his goal drought. Whilst Hughes didn't get his goal, Notts did, as Jon Harley's fierce shot was parried by Jones as far as Sam, who rammed home to add a somewhat undeserved gloss to a very useful away win. Almost more importantly, Wycombe's Stuart Lewis was busy smashing home an injury time equaliser against Carlisle. Our season, somehow, breathes and lives.