But now we have to cast our minds back to the rollercoaster of emotions that was Dagenham & Redbridge away to Leyton Orient in the FA Cup replay.
Tuesday 16th November - Leyton Orient - Fa Cup 1st Round Replay (away)
words by FullMetalDagger
So since waking up I had sat indoors playing FIFA and getting increasingly excited/nervous. Jerk' called sometime during the afternoon and told me that his friend had come to visit the country and had brought some very strong exotic alcohol with him and that I should head to his gaff to join them. So knowing money was tight I decided to start the night early, I put my Daggers shirt on and set off. After a few drinks at Jerk's, MrsMetalDagger phoned and told me she was nearly back from work. I left Jerk' at his after a rum tea and made for home. I met the missus at home and once she had changed and we'd both had a cuppa it was time to head for the tube. We waited for Jerk' at Upney who arrived shortly after on the bus and we jumped on a train which we took to Barking before jumping on the c2c to West Ham. Next it was the Jubilee line to Stratford then just 1 stop on the Central line to Leyton. All in all the journey was unproblematic and passed quite nicely. We walked from the station to meet some friends outside the Coach and Horses pub then made for "the Matchroom Stadium" or Brisbane Road to most people.
From the outside the ground looked fairly standard but it was another club where you find the passage which houses the turnstiles a wee bit claustrophobic. Now inside the smell of hot food was filling my nose and making me hungry so I grabbed an official Orient Cheese burger which I loaded with burger sauce and promptly scoffed. My Nutshell review of said Burger; not bad, more than edible, not as good as ours. I grabbed some napkins which were adorned with the Orient crest and headed for the stands.
"you've got flats on every corner and a shitty balcony, ballllconeeeyyyyyy ballllconeyyyyyy!"
Today we were located in the southern end of the east stand. Straight away I saw that the Red & Blue Army had come out in force and the blocks we had been assigned were already near full. We climbed to up the stairs of the old stand and parked up with our normal noisy crowd. Brisbane road is quite an odd little stadium, and it certainly has an odd look with the west stand having all the offices and boxes rising way up above the single tier of seats. Not to mention the four high-rise flats that adorn each corner. The three home stands started to slowly fill as we kept ourselves warm by making a nice amount of noise.
Sadly the match didn’t start very well, 2 minutes in when a Charlie Daniels free kick was turned into the net by Scott McGleish. But the dagger pushed on and had some chances of their own. The problem was for every Dagenham chance that went begging, Orient would also come close, it wasn't a good day for either teams defence as both 'keepers were called in to keep their retrospective teams in the game. Despite the score line the atmosphere in the away end was alive and well, despite the much referenced apathy towards cup ties these days me and all around me we're enjoying the night for the FA cup derby day it was. But as the clock ticked over to 23 minutes we were finding it hard to keep spirits up. Alex Revell received a through ball and ended up one on one with Lewington who backed off a little which opened up a gap which revel happily slotted the ball into. 2-0 to Orient. This wasn't looking like our day! The Daggers then started to mount a comeback and Bas Savage nearly scored but the whistle went and the teams went back into the dressing room with the score 2-0.
the Red & Blue Army in the west stand
Now the second half is a little bit of a blur to me. I remember us scoring but it being disallowed for a reason that is still unknown to me. I remember us singing our hearts out as we willed the Daggers on to victory as the Orient crowd sat on their hands despite winning a local derby. the next thing I remember was us scoring again, it was possibly Vincelot with a header, but either way it went in and over the line but the referee or the linesman (the lino who was the subject of much moaning) said it was cleared off of the line (bollocks was it!) then a minute later the ref was blowing his whistle and pointing towards the spot, he had awarded us a penalty for an apparent hand ball (I don’t know if there was one, maybe he was just paying us back for disallowing what seemed to me 2 perfectly good goals)
Danny Green stepped up and put it away nicely, 2-1 at 67 minutes! The singing got louder, the boys on the pitch had given us a goal for our efforts and they looked to get another and Solomon Taiwo delivered with a nice strike into the bottom left. The Red & Blue army went into raptures!! We couldn't believe it, now it looked like we could win this or at least take it to extra time. And for 10 minutes we rocked Brisbane road. But in a way typical of stories of this season the delight was robbed from us and given to the apathetic killjoys in the home stands. McGleish got onto a Dean Cox corner and headed it in to make it 3-2. Bugger! The Daggers did carry on trying to get back into it, but we had already scored 4 goals (albeit 2 not given) and finding number 5 was going to be a big ask.
Full time went and the lads came over and clapped the fans, despite a pretty poor first half we had seen the fight we ask for from the Daggers and at full time there was an air of sympathy for the lads. If anything we felt a little robbed. Once outside our little troop ducked into the Coach and Horses for a pint before heading up to the station for a tube home.
Despite the result it was another night when the fans did the club proud, it was great to sing louder than the home fans for the whole match and I can’t wait to get down to Brisbane Road in February .
And I managed to get myself some new toilet paper!
Up the Daggers!!
FxMxDNext - Oldham and all the things that happened when they came to town.
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