Leyton Orient 3 Portsmouth 2
There is a certain type of football supporter who turns up
but once a year, attending the Boxing Day fixture sporting a Christmas jumper
and spinning tales of the good old days and the legion of uncles in the crowd
at Brisbane Road would surely have identified with Orient attacker Ollie Palmer,
a striker for Christmas, not for life, if the Os fans are to be believed.
To the astonishment of home supporters in the South Stand,
the former Grimsby Town player put in a vintage centre-forward display, working
a harassed Portsmouth central defence, holding the ball up with Velcro-like
ability, hurling his body in the way of goalbound shots and scoring two perfect
headers to cap a barnstorming display of traditional English attributes – the
Boxing Day contingent must have thought it was 1955.
Palmer is the sort of target man whose abilities are usually
dismissed with euphemisms such as ‘honest professional’ and ‘hardworking’, more
Carlton than Robert, you might say. “He puts the effort in but he can’t score,”
smiled one bemused regular, seconds before Palmer hurled himself into a far
post diving header Nat Lofthouse would have been proud of.
And the big man’s apotheosis was very much needed – along
with a string of fine stops from Orient keeper Alex Cisak – in a game that
turned on two red cards.
Far from dominating, Orient were chasing the game early on
as Paul Cook’s slick-passing Portsmouth side had them chasing shadows. The
Pompey manager graced the stage at Wolves and Coventry with a sumptuous left
foot and has created a team in his own image, Portsmouth’s cultured play
rewarded with a goal inside four minutes as Kyle Bennett whipped in a cross
from the left and Gareth Evans glanced it home. The difference between the
teams was summed up seconds later when Sean Clohessy’s centre at the opposite
end was scooped over by Jay Simpson, and with Cisak providing a stunning double
save to deny Caolan Lavery and Bennett in the seventh minute, the South Stand
was already bellowing its disapproval.
But a rush of blood from Portsmouth centre-back Adam Webster
– who intercepted a Danny Hollands back-pass intended for keeper Brian Murphy
and then had no choice but to drag down Jobi McAnuff – turned the game on its
head. Simpson sent Murphy the wrong way to score but it was the loss of the
red-carded Webster that proved more costly.
Suddenly, Orient were in their element, pressing
relentlessly with Palmer as the perfect outlet whilst the visitors’ admirable
refusal to abandon their passing principles mired them in their own half. The
forward was everywhere, his rising confidence seeing him attempt drag-backs and
step-overs in the Portsmouth area and with the Pompey chimes silenced, the big
man supplied the perfect glancing header to left-back Cole Kpekawa’s high,
hanging ball from deep, on the stroke of half time.
That should have been game over only for Orient skipper Mathieu
Baudry to lash out in ridiculous fashion, raising his fists after being on the
end of a foul from Bennett and leaving referee Graham Horwood no option but to
reach for his red again. There was little sympathy for the Frenchman as he
trudged off but as Orient fans contemplated 40 minutes of watching red shirts
chasing their opponents’ passing triangles, the free-kick Baudry had won was
swung in from the right and Palmer – who else? – sent home another thumping
header.
Predictably enough Portsmouth were soon back on top in a
fashion which hints they will be a strong bet for automatic promotion but when
overlapping right-back Ben Davies was offered a glimpse of goal, that man
Palmer hurtled across to charge down his rising drive. The respite was
short-lived with the visitors claiming a suitably impressive goal in the 66th
minute, Bennett’s slide-rule pass dissecting the gap between Orient central
defenders Jean Yves Mvoto and Connor Essam to give Evans a clear run at the
exposed Cisak, whom he beat with insouciant ease.
The prospects of Orient holding out for the remainder of a
classic encounter appeared thin, especially when the magisterial Palmer was
replaced nine minutes from time, but his like-for-like replacement John Marquis
almost scrambled a fourth Os goal two minutes into injury time after pouncing
on a suicidal back-pass, with Murphy scrambling the ball onto his left-hand
post and Matt Clarke blocking a follow-up effort on the line.
With the officials finding seven minutes of stoppages, there
was still time for the onrushing Evans to thump a rising effort goalwards but
Cisak, once again, was equal to it. On any other day, the Orient keeper would
have been man of the match but there was only ever going to be one recipient of
that honour.
It was all too much for owner Francesco Becchetti, who
charged onto the pitch at the final whistle and capered in front of the bemused
Orient faithful, looking for all the world like a slightly portly middle aged
pitch invader. If the colourful businessman is concerned about the ongoing attempts
by the Albanian authorities to extradite him for alleged fraud and money
laundering, his attempts to high-five every supporter in the North Stand gave
little evidence of the fact.
