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LEYTON ORIENT WOMEN FC

11 Dec 2025

Gizmo's match preview
AFC Croydon Ath. vs Leyton Orient.
Greater London WFL - Premier division – 14/12/2025

This Sunday Leyton Orient have their second match against AFC Croydon Athletic which is odd because they haven’t played London Academicals or South London First yet! The newly promoted team sit happily in upper mid-table. The entire club is a newcomer, having been formed in 2012 when Croydon Athletic FC folded. It now seems well supported by a consortium composed of Wilfried Zaha, Stormzy and ex Crystal Palace man Danny Young (on-line shop coming soon).

They have gradually worked their way up the men’s leagues, as well as the women’s. As mentioned, the team sits happily in mid-table with games in hand offering the opportunity to improve. Defenders Isis Osei-Tutu and Thalia McDougall are ever-present, as is Ifeoma Nwanji, although I can’t work out where she plays – midfield at a guess. Kizanna Fergus provides all the goals with ten in six games! There is a slight worry over this game as the last three women’s home fixtures were postponed. Their last fixture was a cup game against QPR Women, which they lost 6-0.

>AFC Croydon Athletic women's team.

AFC Croydon Athletic women's team.

Orient warmed up for this match last Sunday by pummelling Sporting Duet 14-1. In the absence of top scorer Sammy Rowland and Steph McCaffrey, Poppy Binding decided to show what she could do scoring six. All of this accomplished without Ellie Thomas-Leek, Lucy Porter and Lois Heuchan. Eva Carvalho made a welcome return at left-back. That result put Orient back on top of the division and they will want to stay there.

Sammy Rowland is out for a while and we wish her all the best and hope that she recovers soon. I don’t have any news on the other absentees, but the squad is strong enough to cover. Having won the previous match against AFC Croydon handily, they will be looking to improve on the scoreline. My apologies to Sporting Duet for getting their French partnership wrong – they are partnered with Racing Club Lens, rather than Rennes. My excuse is poor eye-sight!

Croydon Athletic play at the Mayfield Stadium, Mayfield Road, Thornton Heath CR7 6DN. Starting from the junction of Thornton Road and Silverleigh Road, take the slight left onto Trafford Road, which becomes Mayfield Road. At the end, you’ll find Mayfield Road Playing Ground. Follow the road around to the left, past the allotments, go through the gates onto the track road, and continue on with the playing field on your right. The Croydon Athletic car park is at the end. Thornton Heath is the closest train station about half an hour’s walk, although a 198/250 bus will take you most of the way there. There is a club house and bar.

Last result: Leyton Orient 7 AFC Croydon Athletic 0 (19 October 2025)

Gizmo.

This Sunday's GLWFL fixtures.

There's a full five-match programme of Greater London Premier Division matches this Sunday, weather permitting of course. They are...

Lge AFC Croydon Ath : Leyton Orient
Lge Comets WFC : South London
Lge Islington : AFC Leyton
Lge London Accies : Sporting Duet
Lge Tooting Bec : Luton Town Dev

➡️ AFC Croydon VS Leyton Orient

➡️ Comets WFC VS South London
Comets' recent rise up the table came to a halt last week with a 2:0 defeat to fellow mid-table side London Academicals, it's hard to see how they'll overcome a strong South London team who still have ambitions of winning the league.


Our Verdict: A regulation win for the southerners.

➡️ Islington Borough VS AFC Leyton
Here's a crucial game to both sides. They are occupying the bottom two positions in the league and must view each other as the best opportunity either will get to add to their meagre three points. Even then, next up the league are Luton Town some seven points away. It looks like, whoever loses on Sunday, will be doomed to relegation unless something dramatic happens in the back half of the season.
Our verdict: A right royal scrap in prospect. If pushed to decide, AFC Leyton to come out on top - just!

➡️ London Academicals VS Sporting Duet
We haven't played the Accies yet but their recent results have been stronger than at the start of the season. We have played sporting duet (last Sunday) where our squad team, shorn of five regular starters, put fourteen past them.
Our verdict: Duet will need to raise their game considerably to get anything from our Walthamstow based neighbours, a regulation win for the home side.

➡️ Tooting Bec VS Luton Town Development
Luton have been making steady progress lately, unbeaten in six games until a loss to Duet last time out. It could be tricky for Bec who are still right behind us in the league but they are accustomed to overcoming such challenges.
Our verdict: We think Bec will continue their title push.

All Orient's results, league and cups, can be seen HERE . It is also available plus the official league table (and much more) via our Info and Menu page.

Ellie Thomas Leek says...

O's experienced and star midfielder Ellie Thomas Leek reflects on her first year at the club including the heavy F.A. Cup defeat suffered at the hands of AFC Bournemouth. The match programme for the league one game at home to Luton Town carried the following piece from Matthew Nash of the LOFC media team...

Ellie Thomas Leek (left) and Lucy Porter playing at Brisbane Road vs AFC Bournemouth recently .

Ellie Thomas Leek has seen plenty in the game during her career but she is clear that the opportunity to come to the exciting new project with Orient was one that appealed hugely. Since Orient partnered with the McCaffrey Football Group, the club have been open about their ambitions and aims to work their way up the pyramid. For now, Jason Stephens' side play in the seventh-tier Greater London Women's League Premier Division, where they continue to sweep aside all before them as table-toppers and hope to be elevated at least one division come next summer.

Ellie, who signed almost a year ago, says she had to be persuaded to return to the game following some time out:

"I'd stopped playing for over a year but my best friend asked me to meet Steph and play for Orient. It's been amazing, the girls are great Tier 7 players but it wasn't a standard I had played before and there was a lot of adjusting to do. There has been a complete rebuild this season with Jason coming in. It is honestly one of the best teams I have ever been a part of. It's absolutely boring facing the teams that we do but everybody knows the plan is to work our way up the divisions and reach a level that suits us. Our goal for this season is to make as much noise as we can and improve and enjoy it as much as we can and make sure women's football here has the foundations for the future."

Ellie had fallen out of love with football and had stepped away from the game for a while before Steph McCaffrey offered her the chance to rediscover her enthusiasm of a sport which had seen her play international youth football for Wales. She played abroad and honed her trade in the US but found returning to the UK was not the ideal scenario it could have been. She explains:

"I started out at Bristol Academy, who are now Bristol City, and made my senior debut in the Women's Super League. I then went to America on a scholarship and played for Auburn University in the South-Eastern Conference. I came back to Europe to play professionally in France with Le Havre before coming to play for Lewes, Blackburn and then Stoke in England. After that, I stopped playing for a year. I'd sacrificed so much to play at the highest level possible but the toll it takes on you mentally and physically is massive. It was an impossible balance and it can beat you down so that you fall out of love with the game. A lot of female players have experienced that but I am happy here now and this was an opportunity I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere else. It looked like the perfect opportunity for me. I didn't want to have to give up my career outside of football and my home life so to be able to train once a week and play on a Sunday, I couldn't say no really."

After an unblemished opening to the campaign, the O's came a cropper against the [semi-professionals] of AFC Bournemouth from four divisions higher as they crashed out of the FA Cup 7-1 in round two at BetWright Stadium last month. Ellie tells us how the team rued the first loss of the season but firmly believes it would be a very different case if the sides were to play one another again.

"It was a tough one to take. They were much more advanced than us, there was belief in us that we could compete at that level. It was a jump to play the best team at Tier 3 currently - a bigger jump than many of us expected probably. Maybe in some ways we were a bit naive in our preparation for that. We do still have some very young, inexperienced players in the team and they will grow for that experience. I think we would put up a much better show against them if we had the chance to play them again."

It certainly appears Orient could have much more to smile about by the season's end if their campaign continues to progress in the way it has started.

PoppySix joins the team!

With an eye on happenstance, here at the lofcwomen.com HQ from where we also run a fostering service for abandoned cats, fate dictated that, last Sunday afternoon when Poppy Binding was hitting a hat-trick in each half against Sporting Duet, a very young tabby was delivered here to start the process of finding a home. Within minutes she was everywhere, into everything and looked like she'd be running the show very soon. Welcome to 'PoppySix'. An inspired name don'cha fink? She needs some medical help (the cat, not the footballer) but we hope to find her a new home (the cat, not the...) soon. If we cannot, then she'll stay here (the cat etc....).

PoppySix the kitten

PoppySix - ready to take over!

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