Leyton Orient 3 - Gillingham 3

3 nil up to 3 all.

My god.

Gave away a penalty in the 77th minute and that was that - the door was kicked ajar and the Gills panicked. Lockwood (a defender) got a hat-trick and writes himself into O's folklore - well for the rest of this week at least.

We had most of the first half possession and again were producing good solid chances - but we are unable to put them away and captialise on these opportunities. So with the first half coming to a close and still no goals the nagging worry was in my head. First team to break this sort of deadlock will win. At this point enter Bentley (43), and in added time Ndumbu-Nsungu (45). What a great way to go in at half time. Orient never looked liked scoring at this point. Poor side in the never ending list of poor sides I have seen this season. SO second half the 1,000+ travelling fans were in full voice. We settled back quickly, no subs and opened up their defence fairly easily for a superb goal by the hero of the team, Jarvis (57). He will no doubt be snapped up in Jan transfer window - current rumour has Spurs sniffing round.

At 3 up we should have kept to our game plan and just kept the possession and kept pressure on their goal. To be fair we did. Then with 15 minutes to go it all changed.

It is, as they say, a funny old game. Suddenly the youthful chants of 'Easy! Easy! Easy!' were coming back to haunt us. I may get jeered for not singing but experience tells me there is a time and a place for most chants. This was not it. Flinders the wonder shot stopper (lovingly nickname David James by my Dad) pulled a man down - the home fans furious, pen given -- taken and scored. In my head I wanted us to do an Oldham from Saturday and get the 4th and make Orient suffer. We didn't.

3 goals and we yes f****** it up.

At least the tube ride home was painless - though I got in only 30 minutes sooner than I would have done from GFC.

A few observations. The away stand is half of the Brisbane Road side stand and its wooden, and claustrophobic when you try and get out - the exits are appalling. Tsk tsk those Gills fans puffing away throughout the game - nowt better than wiping out your fellow fans... And the re-developed parts of the ground look pretty swish - well the blocks of flats in each corner are certainly novel - providing their residents with balcony seatrs for them to watch each home game. Whatever floats your boat I guess! Pictures to follow also a grand total of the number of pikies who turned out! I ended up about 11 rows from the front and next to older fans. The chap next to me was fairly simple in outlook but shared his gum, was happy to talk about the home games he comes to from Brighton, and was visibly impressed at my away record. Not all bad.