“I remember going to Maine Road in 1964 with my dad and we got walloped six-nothing,” recalls Nigel Travis. “I think it’s the only time I’ve ever seen us play them.” The Leyton Orient chairman’s account of watching his club face Manchester City is rare among fans of the League One team – the teams have not met since a second-tier 2-2 draw in 1966. Fortunes have diverged since but Orient welcome City to east London on Saturday in upbeat mood and at something of a crossroads.
After seven and a half years of steady upward progress since Travis’s consortium took over a club in ruins after relegation to the National League, the chairman has been soliciting fresh investment. A new stadium nearby is being considered and talk has been afoot of aping their former lower division London rivals and “doing a Brentford”. The manager, Richie Wellens, has spoken of “not being ‘little Leyton Orient’ any more”.
“I think Brentford’s the inspiration for a lot of football clubs, as are Brighton,” says Travis. “Mark Devlin [Orient’s chief executive, formerly at Brentford] thinks we were in a better position when he came on board than Brentford were when they were in League One so it’s possible. It’s probably unlikely, but every year except one here we’ve made progress. The biggest issue is the stadium’s not big enough.”
Brisbane Road holds 9,271 and with gates averaging 7,628 this term – their highest since the old Second Division days of the 1970s – and a growing local population the case for a move, preferably within their home borough, Waltham Forest, is strong. Three potential sites have been identified.
League One is a tougher environment, though, than it was 11 years ago, when the Bees began their rise by pipping Russell Slade’s Orient to automatic promotion. The money splurged by American owners at Birmingham – “at least four times our budget” – and Wrexham has raised the cost of competing. Orient, too, are largely US-funded; the 75-year-old Travis is an east Londoner and lifelong fan but is Boston-based and his business, as chair of the Baskin‑Robbins ice cream brand, is in the US. A majority of the board are American.
Travis says Orient’s budget has been revised upwards three times this season as they push for a playoff place, so the estimated £300,000 boost promised by Saturday’s match against a club who have spent £172m on transfers in the past month is a tonic. Wellens, having managed the team to the League Two title in 2023, has his team sixth, an unbeaten league run of nine wins and two draws brought to a halt last Saturday by Stockport.
That run was kickstarted, or rather head-started, by the on-loan Tottenham goalkeeper Josh Keeley. Orient were heading for a second‑round Cup exit at home to the National League side Oldham until the ninth and final minute of injury time. The O’s won a free‑kick, which the Ireland under‑21 international Keeley met with a " target="_blank" class="link"> well-directed glancing header to equalise. Wellens’ side won the tie in extra time with another last-gasp goal, from the live‑wire forward Dan Agyei.
Keeley says he would “100%” go up for a late set piece should Orient be level or a goal behind late on against City. But other than a bicycle kick in a lockdown kickaround with friends, the Oldham goal is the only one he can recall scoring since he took up the gloves aged 12. Progress has been swift since, as he prospered. at St Patrick’s Athletic, where he was coached by Patrick Jennings, son of another goalscoring former keeper, the Tottenham legend Pat, before his move to Spurs in 2022. Jennings Sr is a regular face at Spurs and he and Keeley have struck up a rapport. “He’s at the club a lot. I’ve even played golf with him,” says Keeley.
The goalkeeper was Orient’s hero again in round three, saving in the shootout against Derby to set up Zech Obiero’s winning kick. It was the second shootout win of Orient’s Cup campaign, Keeley having also saved a penalty in the first round at non-league Boreham Wood. Every match in Orient’s run has gone the distance – they have played more FA Cup minutes this season than any other side in the fourth round.
Taking the Premier League champions to 120 minutes will be a much more exacting task. For all their recent frailties Pep Guardiola’s side tend to make short work of lower-league opposition, as a half‑strength City showed in cuffing aside an in-form Salford 8-0 last month.
“They have shown some vulnerabilities,” Wellens says. “But I say vulnerabilities really lightly because in the last month they beat Ipswich by six, Salford eight, so the level’s above. This is an elite football club so it’s going to be really difficult for us whoever they pick.”
Whatever the result the tie can, at least, serve as a celebration of progress made. The club have been galvanised in a rollercoaster decade that has featured their near-destruction under the chaotic three-year ownership of the Italian waste management magnate Francesco Becchetti, Travis’s rescue in 2017, promotion back to the Football League in 2019 under Justin Edinburgh, who tragically died suddenly five weeks after that triumph, and the progress under Wellens of the past three years.
Wellens too deserves his moment in the spotlight. His past as a Manchester United youth player, and lifelong fan – “Pep’s caused me a lot of pain in the past but he’s a genius, a pioneer,” he says – adds spice for a manager who has forged a reputation as a progressive tactician. Injuries have taken their toll recently amid a crowded schedule, depriving Orient of the attacking talents of Agyei, Ollie O’Neill and the commanding defensive presence of Omar Beckles, though they recruited well in January. Still standing though are the classy Northern Ireland midfielder/full-back Ethan Galbraith (another Old Trafford academy graduate, and subject of a rejected £750,000 bid from Swansea on deadline day) and Keeley’s fellow Spurs loanee Jamie Donley, who has sparkled in the No 10 role.
It all constitutes a big shop window for team and club, and a prize for fans.
“When I think back when we were playing teams in the National League,” Travis says, “I never dreamed we’d be playing Manchester City at home so this is a reward for everyone that’s followed us through the years.”
