League Two leaders Leyton Orient suffered a surprise exit in the first round of the FA Cup after late drama at Gretsy Road which saw Orient’s Craig Clay shown a straight red card in the 87th minute for a full-blooded tackle before Crewe’s Bassala Sambou scored two minutes into additional time to book Crewe Alexandra’s place in the second round.
Poor
Orient Head Coach, Richie Wellens, was critical of referee Sam Purkiss when he spoke to the club’s media team after the final whistle. “There’s no point in talking about the referee today. He was poor in a lot of aspects of the game”.
Richie Wellens made six changes to his Orient team for the trip to Crewe. Shadrach Ogie, George Moncur, Craig Clay, Jordan Brown, Stephen Duke-McKenna and Charlie Kelman all came into the side for the O’s as Orient took the opportunity to give some rest to some of his key players.
Managerial Change
Saturday’s first round tie was Crewe’s interim manager Lee Bell’s first for the club after former first team manager Alex Morris stepped down from his position in midweek after requesting to do so for compassionate reasons. Morris is now the first team assistant manager at Gretsy Road.
Orient started brightly and had the ball in the net in the fifth minute of the game, but Charlie Kelman was adjudged to have fouled Crewe goalkeeper Arthur Akonkwo in the build-up and the goal was ruled out.
Kelman had a second chance to open the scoring for the O’s moments later but his effort from a tight angle was well-saved by Akonkwo.
At the other end, Lawrence Vigouroux made an agile save to deny Dan Agyei and keep the scores level.
George Moncur almost marked his return to the starting eleven with an audacious solo goal. The Orient midfielder danced past Lachlan Cook near the touchline before rattling a shot off the underside of the crossbar.
Drama Unfolds
A dour second half dramatically came to life inside the last five minutes as Richie Wellens’ side thought they had found a late goal through substitute Paul Smyth, but Crewe defender Kelvin Mellor blocked the winger’s shot on the line.
Orient midfielder Craig Clay was controversially sent off with just three minutes of normal time remaining. Clay will argue that the ball was there to be won but in truth the Orient man appeared to lunge after the ball when it fell between him and Bassala Sambou.
Crewe quickly took advantage of their numerical superiority and scored a late winner when Mellor’s low cross was turned in at the near post by Sambou.
