Why the O's will miss Ben Chorley

Like him or loathe him, Ben Chorley man has left Orient after three-and-a-half years to join Stevenage on a longer-term contract than the O's were seemingly willing to give.

First and foremost I'd like to wish him all the best for the future (after we sneaked a win there last week) and good luck for his time at Broadhall Way / Lamex Stadium.

Now we're free to discuss what Ben brought to the team and also what we'll be lacking in his absence.

2011/12 season wasn't great for Orient in the main as we've covered in previous posts, in particular it didn't seem to go well for Ben Chorley. Regularly left out of the team to make way for Terrell Forbes, Scott Cuthbert and Dean Leacock this didn't bode well for when he did factor into the team as very uncharacteristic-like sloppy mistakes and shirking his duties were apparent in his play. As O's fans these were quite mystifying as the previous two-years performances and regular appearances had been solid for Ben.

I feel the culmination of this angst was away to relegation candidates Wycombe on the 06.03.2012. A totally unbalanced and dire Orient team* struggled in spectacular fashion to cope with Wycombe.

Four-Nil down after 39 minutes isn't great shakes by anybodies standard but it was in the 33rd minute that I witnessed (with my own eyes, a few yards from me) an extremely frustrated Chorley lambast 21 year old debutant Syam Ben Youssef.
If that doesn't seem bad enough, Youssef had only entered the fray in the 31st minute as Dean Leacock didn't seem to like the idea of being two-nil down to the basement boys on a cold-evening in Buckinghamshire and went down injured after thirty minutes.

That's correct, two minutes into his senior debut (and yet to touch a ball) Youssef had Chorley eye-balling him and for want of a better word, totally bollocking him off. This isn't how a senior pro should've gone about his business.

For the record. O's went on to lose against Wycombe 4-2 that night. The French-Tunisian Syam Ben Youssef left at the end of the season after nine appearances and has re-surfaced playing for Astra Giurgiu in Romania. I though he was pretty decent.

 When Stephen Dawson left for Barnsley we needed a new captain and most assumed that would be Chorley. I think Ben thought it'd be him too. The captaincy was handed to Matthew Spring. I believe this was a mistake on the part of Russell Slade and it well and truly split the camp in two. Chorley heading up the south of the river contingent (Chorley, Forbes, Lisbie Moses, Porter & Mooney) whilst Spring looked after the Essex-Based and North of the river bunch (Spring, Leacock, Cuthbert, Smith, Cox, McSweeney). Whilst I've no conclusive proof of the above, there was a split-squad and this became quite apparent among the O's faithful as things were getting worse.

Ben's not all trouble though. Not at all. I was quite shocked when he left the O's as he's been back to his brilliant best this season. A real captain, leader and influential player on the pitch.

All rifts seemed to have been healed and Slade was quick to heap praise on Chorley quite recently. When talking about Moses Odubajo's performances and development Slade mentioned the encouragement that Chorley had shown to Moses and all the younger players.

So what can Steveange fans expect of Chorley? Strong in the air, pretty reliable with the ball at his feet, strong in the challenge and tactically aware. Above all a very good professional who looks after himself well. As I said above. I'm going to miss him.

I'm writing this blog entry before the Tranmere game and I must be honest, am quite worried about the leadership in our team. Nathan Clarke is the club captain, but he's injured, so Scott Cuthbert will be the captain for today alongside the excellent Matthieu Baudry.

Scott Cuthbert is a fine defender, one of the best i can remember at the O's, but against Southend he didn't strike me as a leader. In fact the whole team against Southend seemed to lack leadership and direction. This worries me as its a step back to how we were last season when we were in free-fall.

I suppose only time will tell but at the moment I'd have preferred Chorley to be standing with us and leading us, rather than one of our rivals.

Lacklustre O's beaten by stylish Donny

When a groundsman wins the man of the match award you know you've hardly been at a spectacle of a match.

Step forward Doncaster Rovers groundsman Andy Thompson (@Andy_Thompson21) for getting this game on at all. Along with the help of several Doncaster snow shifters and a barmy Orient one the game went ahead as planned on a perfectly playable surface,  though there might have been a frozen bit here and there. It seemed quite mild too to be fair and a lot warmer and less windy than back down in London.

The trains were running fine on the way up despite the weather and the journey was pretty uneventful, though my companion was most pleased to spot a floating RTV31 locomotive based somewhere around Peterborough. This would ultimately be the highlight of the day.

A floating train in Peterborough.

The walk from station to stadium was quite pretty in the snow and almost picturesque if trading estates and warehouses are your thing. After a bit of a walk where the parking and fast-food gets increasingly expensive, you finally arrive at the Keepmoat Stadium and realise you really are in the middle of nowhere.

The Keepmoat itself is pretty impressive in this era of modern stadia. Sort of a mini St Mary's. It has a Sports Centre backing onto it and that looked quite decent too.

£24 to get in, decent facilities, scalding hot water, comfy seats and plenty of room. They even moved the 200 of us because of the snow which was a nice touch.

A panoramic of the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster.

Russell Slade decided to rest most of our decent players because they're all absolutely knackered. I can see the logic of this and even thought the team that he sent out would be quite quick on the counter and able to do a bit of damage that way.

Jones and a pretty solid back four in front of him, Smith and Griffith holding and the other 4 using a bit of pace to attack on the break. Simple plan. Not that easy to execute. Charlie MacDonald at 5'7'' and debutant Ade Azeez (on-loan from Charlton) didn't even make a dent in  the lofty Doncaster centre-backs, Moses ran out of steam after a few minutes and Cox might as well have not bothered to turn up.

Random picture of Russell as not much else happened.

With a lack of movement and activity in front of them Smith and Griffith' looked lost and the defence could only hold-on for 19 minutes before it was breached. From their first corner of the game, O's switched off and Rob Jones powered home a fine header.

And that was that really. O's offered absolutely nothing in response. We weren't quite as bad as the BBC stats made out and we did have a couple of hit and hope shots but ultimately it was game over.

On 54 minutes somebody woke Chris Brown up and after being caught offside a couple of times and slotting one wide, he managed to hit the target and make it 2-0 to Doncaster.

During the 2nd half O's introduced Mooney, Cook & then Rowlands but although it shored them up a bit, this was clearly Doncaster's game and there was nothing Orient could do to alter that.

The ref blew the final whistle, 6,500 Doncaster fans went home happy and 200 O's trudged back home knowing that their team had just been beaten by a team that will more than likely get promoted this year.

Doncaster are strong when they need to be and also mix it up by playing some neat football. They're easily the strongest team I've seen this year.

O's Man of the Match - Ben Chorley, played like a captain should and held it together well. It could've been a lot worse without Big Ben at the back.

Orient - Jones, Sawyer, Chorley, Cuthbert, McSweeney (Cook), Cox, Smith, Griffith (Rowland), Odubaju, MacDonald, Azeez (Mooney)