Leyton Orient Women’s captain Danielle Griffiths described their 2-0 loss as a “kick in the teeth” as the O’s slipped to their third league defeat since the turn of the year.
Meila D’Santos pounced on a loose ball to fire Denham ahead on 47 minutes, before Emma Kern latched onto a through pass and coolly lifted the ball into the net eight minutes later.
Speaking exclusively to Rising East, Griffiths sensed there was a mountain to climb when the visitors doubled their lead:
“The first goal was quite early, so I wasn’t too worried. There was a long way still to go. The second goal came when the rain and wind had just picked up which felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth. It’s difficult to come back from two-nil against anyone, but we certainly didn’t help ourselves.”
This defeat leaves Orient fifth in South East Division One, while Denham claimed only their second victory of the season to move six points clear of bottom club Luton Town Ladies.
Fine Line
Manager Chris Brayford strayed from his conventional tactics, setting the O’s up in a 4-4-2 formation.
Francesca Cagetti played at right-back allowing Hannah Porter to slot into central defence, while Hayley Barton recovered from injury to reclaim her right midfield spot.
It was a scrappy start to proceedings with few chances of note during the opening quarter of an hour. However, Sophie Le Marchand thought she had given Orient the lead on 17 minutes only to be frustrated by the linesman’s flag.
Despite their grievances, Griffiths admitted that Orient lacked conviction when opportunities fell their way:
“I think it was a big moment in the game. If we’d scored that, they’ve gone behind in a lot of games and I think we would have seen a different attitude.
At half time, they went in at 0-0 thinking they still had a chance in the game. It was a big moment, but we had other chances to score and we need to take those better.”
Young Blood
During an uneventful first half, young striker Suaila Cardoso Queni proved a bright spark on an otherwise gloomy afternoon.
She earned her second consecutive start after being named ‘Player of the Match’ in Orient’s previous outing, receiving high praise from her skipper:
“She perhaps didn’t get the chances she deserved earlier in the season. She’s always been training hard and playing well, but she has definitely stepped up in the last few weeks. Crawley was a tough game, we were mostly defending.
She put in a lot of work, looked dangerous and looked like she could have played for another 90 minutes on top of that despite the fact it was quite an exhausting game!
“Today she was by far the best player, she looked like she was going to create our best chances. She was very unlucky not to score when she was through, but yes really impressed with her and hopefully that continues.”
Style Scuppered
With nothing to separate them at half-time, Orient kicked off the second half but quickly found themselves in trouble. Denham netted two-quick fire goals before the heavens opened to compile the O’s misery.
Undoubtedly, this made it difficult for Orient to play their type of football, but Griffiths refused to use the conditions as an excuse:
“We like to play the ball, pass it around and move it. You weren’t always confident on your footing, your passing or where the ball was going to be. Like I said, that’s not an excuse. We need to be able to play around those conditions.
It’s Sunday league football, the pitch isn’t always a carpet. We showed that we could do that in the second part of the first half, so it’s not an excuse for our performance in the second half at all.”
Absent Quality
Valiantly, Orient continued to search for a lifeline. They pushed forward forcing Denham to defend inside their own box, utilising all three substitutions but to no avail.
At full-time, Griffiths acknowledged missed chances and what she believed was lacking in the O’s performance:
“I think just a bit of confidence on the ball, I don’t think we used it very well. The conditions didn’t help but Denham adapted to them and we should have been able to as well.
We had a bright 25 minute spell which we needed to capitalise on, some unfortunate decisions but you need to play for those. We’re not using the ball as well as we could, we definitely need to improve on that.”
Quick Reaction
A hectic fixture schedule leaves Orient with little time to dwell on the result. They travel to second placed Billericay Town Ladies in the FA Women’s National League on Wednesday evening.
Looking ahead to the clash, Griffiths stated the quality the Essex club possess but showed confidence in her team’s ability to get a result:
“We know Billericay are good. They’re a very strong, very good footballing team but we tend to have our better performances against the teams at the top of the league. I’m hoping today doesn’t affect us, it shouldn’t affect us. We’ve got plenty more still to give and it will be a good occasion I hope.”
