Blue skies accompanied everyone heading for the Toughsheet Community Stadium as we prepared to face Leyton Orient.
Our win at Brisbane Road had got our season off to a promising start, a win today might give us a promising end to our season. The Doombar deliberations were all about the football and our chances of finishing in the Play-offs.
Today’s match would be tough as Leyton Orient are one of the form teams of the moment and the first of three matches which will be a real test of our ambitions this season, with Wrexham and Birmingham City to follow.
There was a welcome return to the Toughsheet for Randell Williams but not for Darren Pratley, as he was suspended after his red card last week. For the Wanderers, Eoin Toal was out and George Thomasson only made the bench upon his return from suspension.
There was a great atmosphere from the start as the crowd realised the importance of this match. Both teams were up for it as Orient showed why they are the form team and they gradually got on top in the first half and it was no surprise when they went ahead, just before half-time, through Charlie Kelman, their on-loan, top goal scorer.
We needed to do something, and Steven Schumaker made his first move at half-time, bringing Aaron Collins on for Jay Matete.
This worked a treat as he ran riot through their defence, eventually making the perfect pass to put John McAtee in for our first goal. When captain Josh Sheehan was tripped, Aaron Morley duly put away the penalty and our comeback was complete.
Up to us going in front, we had suffered the almost compulsory game management, aka time wasting from Orient with feigned injuries, prompting Lofty the Lion, to grab a walking stick from the crowd and hobble along the touchline.
We joined in these tactics to see us through, but it meant the referee played 12 minutes of additional time, making us all late home for our teas!
This was an immense win under the circumstances, a rare win over a team above us. This has got to give us hope that maybe we can still achieve promotion this season.
The next two games will be particularly tough, but I maintain that every single game of our remaining fourteen will be tough.
We should take them one game at a time.
