Given our home form, and Orient's overall form, this looks a very tricky game on paper. This is reflected slightly in the bookies odds as we're odds against to win, albeit still favourites at 8/7. Orient are 12/5 to come away with the points. On their travels this season, the O's have amassed a respectable 24 points from 16 games upon their return to the third tier. The 7 teams above them in the away form table are 7 of the 8 teams above them in the overall league table (Blackpool being the exception). Their win at Port Vale in midweek was their 3rd win in a 4 game unbeaten run on the road, including a 3-0 triumph over Portsmouth. A narrow defeat at Bolton, where they rallied from 3 down, is their only defeat in their last 10 away games. Prior to that, they'd only won 1 of their first 6 away in the league. Historically, our record over Orient at Oakwell has been very good. 20 of our 23 victories vs Orient have come at home, and at Oakwell, we've only drawn 4 and lost 3. We've won our last 2 meetings at Oakwell vs Orient, albeit they were 9 and 42 years ago respectively. In fact these are the only two meetings at Oakwell in the last 55 years. That last victory in December 2014 came courtesy of first half strikes from Conor Hourihane and, reds current top scorer, Devante Cole. Referee Ross Joyce has issued an average of 4.75 cards per game this season, including a red card every 3 games. He took charge of our draw at Lincoln in November, where Jamie McCart was the only reds player in his notebook. He visited Oakwell twice last season, overseeing our victories over Oxford and Wednesday. He last took charge of an Orient game last March, their 2-2 home draw with Colchester, a game in which the O's were awarded a penalty, scored by ex Barnsley midfielder George Moncur. 19 year old attacker, Shaqai Ford is in good form for the Orient at present. His 5 goals in his last 10 games has seen him soar to the top of Leyton Orient's scoring charts with 8 league goals, including a brace at home to Carlisle last weekend. Dependable Cypriot frontmam Ruel Sotiriou is also having a productive campaign, with a goal involvement rate of 1 in 3, with this being on course to be the 23 year olds most prolific campaign. Tunisian midfielder Idris El Mizouni is also worth keeping an eye on, as we were allegedly interested in him in January. This is a difficult game to predict, as Orient have certainly found their feet in the division, and latched onto the coat tails of the top 8 who at one stage were well clear of the chasing pack. I'm a firm believer in long standing records having an effect, and therefore am predicting a win in this one. More in hope than expectation. Though considering Earl appears to be having an impact already, and Connell and Kane are likely to be in the midfield, there are few teams in this league we should fear. I'm going for 2-1 with Cole and McAtee on the scoresheet.
I will be at Oakwell for this one - first time in ages. I did see Leyton Orient win 2-1 at Cheltenham Town earlier in the season when they scored twice in the last few minutes, having been behind for most of the game. Their first half and most of the second was pedestrian and they looked disorganised and lacking any forward momentum. However, when they brought on Agyei, Ford and Pigott, they were a different animal and really went at Cheltenham hard. Wellens has clearly got an average squad well organised now and playing for each other. They will be hard to break down for that reason and Adgyei and Ford give them the sort of threat which explains their recent surge up the table. On the other, records always come to an end and I hope theirs will at Oakwell on Saturday. They will be a difficult and organised opponent. A late winner for us would be good, as they won't have much time to go into all out attack mode. 1-0 to the Reds with a late goal from McAtee. COYR
3-2 Reds. Early blunders as usual. Proper bollocking at half time then Cadden, Cole and Mael wrap it up.
Some surprisingly optimistic predictions. There are certainly reasons to be optimistic, despite our slight wobble in form.