Leyton Orient women secured their place in the second round of the Combined Counties Cup after a howler from the Crystal Palace development ‘keeper.
An injury-plagued Orient squad were largely on the back foot at the Mile End stadium, with O’s keeper Naomi Ogunde making a multitude of quality saves to keep her side in the game in E7.
After settling down and finding their rhythm, Palace started to assert their dominance early on, revealing Orient’s defensive frailties, as what should have been a routine clearance turned into the Palace’s first meaningful chance. A simple ball over the top should’ve been dealt with by O’s defender Demi Brown but a Palace forward outpaced her, fortunately her eventual shot was blazed over.
Palace Purring
Palace began to grow in confidence and took a real stronghold on the game, winger Mia Lockett found herself in behind and her intelligent pull back was fired just over the bar by Tia Searle on the edge of the box.
The game then fizzled out into a battle in the middle of the park as both sides struggled to create anything of note during a first half that was scarce of clear-cut chances.
After enjoying a fruitful period earlier in the half, Palace’s previous dominance prevailed as they took a deserved lead. A poor kick from the O’s keeper put the defence on the back foot, and a rushed Brown was quickly closed down by Palace’s Aliyeah Forbes who dispossessed her before coolly stroking the ball past the keeper.
Clearly buoyed by putting her team in the ascendancy, one almost became two for Forbes as a poorly cleared corner fell to her on the edge of the area before her fierce shot whistled just over the bar.
After dominating large parts of the first half, Palace were quickest out of the traps in the second with the live-wire Lockett weaving past two Orient defenders before her snapshot was saved by the O’s ‘keeper.
Palace Devs should have doubled their lead on the hour mark, a blistering counter-attack by the away side saw Forbes play a beautifully weighted ball into Lockett and the winger should have marked her display with a much deserved goal but her effort was magnificently saved by Orient’s stand out player Ogunde.
Ogunde had to be on her toes again as she was tested by a fierce shot by Humes, her shot was met by Orient’s keeper keeping her side in the game.
Rounding off her excellent trio of quick succession saves, a through ball saw Forbes agonisingly miss out as the O’s keeper was quick off her line to execute a perfect sliding tackle, however she was up quick to deny the number 10 again and keep the score line at 1-0.
Poor finishing punished
Palace were made to rue missed chances as Orient, against the run of play equalised. Midfield playmaker Fran Ali whipped in a vicious ball that wasn’t dealt with by the Palace defence and somehow was bundled in and it seemed like the last touch came off a Palace player to hand Orient a way back into the game.
The O’s were on the attack again as a long ball over the top wasn’t dealt with and Otesha Charles latched on to it before seeing her shot bounce back off the post and cleared by the Palace defence.
Orient finished the game the stronger, but both teams began extra time clearly fatigued after a close-fought 90 minutes in which both teams gave their all.
A stroke of luck
A loss of concentration gifted Orient their passage into the second round of the CC cup, a simple through ball was somehow spilt by the Palace ‘keeper and fell at the feet of Le Marchand who couldn’t believe her luck and she poked the ball into an empty net to give Orient the win deep into extra time.
Orient: Ogunde, Thomas (Piira 45), Brown, Auguste, Young, Ali, McCann, Holmback (Hirst 102), Le Marchand, Stenning (Barton 74), Charles
Bookings: Stenning (56), Auguste (85)
Goals: OG (71), Le Marchand (114)
Palace: Greenwood, Lock, Warrior, Treacey, Parker, Robinson, Humes, Searle, Jacobs, Lockett, Forbes
Subs: Searle, Swaby, Price
Goal: Forbes (34)
