Casting the mind back to February 2017 might be a painful experience for a lot of Leyton Orient supporters. But with the visit of Macclesfield Town this weekend, doing so can help to appreciate how well the club has done to rebuild and recover in the subsequent years, as well as breed empathy towards the visiting supporters that will be making the trip down to E10 on Saturday.
February 7th 2017: On a brisk wintery night in East London, 112 years of history hangs in the balance. Orient are just over two weeks removed from a bizarre statement released by CEO Alessandro Angelieri in which he seemed to suggest that the club’s recent downturn in form was due to the absence of owner Francesco Becchetti, rather than the fact the club’s hierarchy had placed the majority of senior players on the transfer list mid-way through the January window.
Tumultuous
This is just the latest twist in Becchetti’s tumultuous spell at the helm of one of London’s oldest clubs. The Italian has splashed the cash in a bid to achieve success, though his attempts can only really be described as an unmitigated disaster, and following a supporter-led protest in November, there is a growing sense his interest in the club has waned as of late.
Meanwhile, Danny Webb is preparing his side for the visit of 17th place Morecambe. The 33-year-old became Orient’s fourth manager of the campaign just last week, falling to a 2-1 defeat to promotion chasing Carlisle United in his first game in charge.
Having seen the club ship out four senior strikers over the course of the last two months, Webb has little choice but to start two forwards with a combined age of 36 in Victor Adeboyejo and Sam Dalby for this crucial fixture. In stark contrast, 37 year old Kevin Ellison leads the line for the visitors.
Promising
The O’s start the game well, exciting winger Gavin Massey in particular looks to have the bit between his teeth, forcing a decent save from Barry Roche before almost teeing up Adeboyejo for an opener.
However, that promising start was unable to be maintained as Jim Bentley’s side stepped up their game following the interval. 2,660 fans, the lowest league crowd at Brisbane Road for some years, watched on with a sense of inevitability as Paul Mullin broke the deadlock with a fine strike in the 73rd minute and the O’s failed to find a response.
The result leaves Webb’s side mired in the relegation dogfight, without a league point in 2017 and with just four wins in their last 23 league games.
February 8th 2020: Macclesfield Town make the journey to the capital without an away win since October. They are six points above the one relegation spot in League Two and although they do have a game in hand, there is a strong possibility that further punishment is yet to come following their failure to fulfil their home fixture against Plymouth Argyle before Christmas.
The Silkmen have already been handed a 10-point deduction, with four points suspended, this season after their game against Crewe in early December had to be postponed due to a player strike over unpaid wages.
A similar situation occurred in early November. With first-team players refusing to play, then manager Daryl McMahon was forced to field an extremely inexperienced XI as his side crashed out of the F.A Cup losing 4-0 at home to Kingstonian from the Isthmian Premier Division.
Chaos
The chaos off the field at Moss Rose stretches as far as back as the 2017/18 season when club icon John Askey, led them to the National League title, despite the fact players were not receiving their wages on time during the campaign.
Former Liverpool and Manchester City midfielder Mark Kennedy is the third manager to take charge of the side this season, after Sol Campbell resigned from the club in August and his replacement McMahon, did the same last month.
Kennedy’s job has been made even harder by the fact that three important players in Theo Vassell, Miles Welch-Hayes and Emmanuel Osadebe all reached an agreement with the EFL to have their contracts cancelled before the end of the January window, due to the non-payment of wages. This has left the 43-year-old with only 15 fit senior players to choose from, as he named a subs bench of just four in the 1-0 defeat to Northampton last weekend.
Nadir
Credit must go to Campbell, McMahon, Kennedy, and the man frequently used as an interim coach between these reigns, Danny Whittaker, for keeping the club more than competitive over the last couple of years. However, things seemed to have reached a nadir in Cheshire and a change of ownership seems necessary.
Businessman Joe Sealey appeared to have struck a deal with incumbent owner Amar Alkadhi in December, though those talks appear to have stalled and Macclesfield fan, @silkmenarmy on Twitter, outlined what’s currently at stake to Rising East. “We’ve turned down the chance to sell to a couple if potential buyers and apart from blind optimism there are no reasons to think we’ll exist in our current form for much longer whether Mark Kennedy’s young vibrant squad manage to pull off a remarkable survival job or not.”
