Leyton Orient maintained their three-point lead at the top of League Two after securing a comfortable 2 – 0 victory away at Harrogate Town on Saturday afternoon with goals from the returning George Moncur and in-form Paul Smyth who netted his eight goal of the season.
Orient made three changes to the side that lost at Plough Lane in midweek with Jordan Brown, George Moncur and Charlie Kelman preferred to Tom James, Ruel Sotiriou and Aaron Drinan.
Fast Start
With just seven minutes on the clock Smyth headed in a teasing Moncur corner kick. The Orient winger has been in outstanding form recently scoring four goals in his last seven league matches. Remarkably, Leyton Orient hadn’t scored a single header all season before Smyth’s goal – who is in fact the smallest player in the team at 5ft 7 inches.
Moncur and Smyth combined again to add a second goal for Orient in the 24th minute, but this time it was Smyth who turned provider. The Northern Irishman was fouled in the box by the Harrogate Town goalkeeper Peter Jameson after being played through by O’s skipper Darren Pratley. Moncur made no mistake with the penalty, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.
The O’s almost scored a third when a blocked Moncur shot bounced back to him in the penalty area, but his effort was well-saved by Jameson. Meanwhile goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux did well to preserve his clean sheet during the first half producing saves to deny Harrogate’s Luke Armstrong and Alex Pattinson.
Game Management
The second half saw Leyton almost replicate their fast start to the game as Jordan Brown, whose performances have been improving on a weekly basis, hit the post in the 48th minute after running on to Moncur’s lay off at the edge of the penalty area.
Harrogate almost hit back in the 54th minute when Orient centre back Omar Beckles cleared Matty Daly’s goal-bound effort off the line.
It was at this point that Wellens, wanting to preserve his team’s clean sheet and control of the game, made a succession of substitutions, replacing Charlie Kelman and Rob Hunt with Aaron Drinan and Jayden Sweeney.
Wellens’ changes seemed to have the desired effect and Orient controlled the remainder of the contest, reducing Harrogate to hopeful crosses into the box and speculative shorts form distance.
Convincing Display
Speaking to the club’s media after the final whistle, head coach Richie Wellens said, “We were back at it today. I thought in the first half we were very convincing. In the first half we could have scored a few more goals and we had to weather the storm a little bit for 20 minutes in the second half. In the last 15 minutes we saw the game out really comfortably.”
