Leyton Orient Women

7 September 2026

• Report on Sunday's defeat
• Orient Outlook Podcast
• Re-live the game
• Other results round-up

Leyton Orient 1:5 MK Irish

Cheshunt
6 September 2026

📷 Larry Peterson

Yesterday, Leyton Orient Women bowed out of this season's Women's FA Cup at the first qualifying round. Visitors Milton Keynes Irish were that bit stronger all round and deservedly move on to round two, courtesy of a convincing 5–1 win at Cheshunt.
Our girls in white and red worked tirelessly but ultimately found the overall strength and fitness of the visitors to be a bridge too far. Samantha Read grabbed a last-minute consolation goal, at least putting a small smile on the faces of the Orient faithful.

For Jody Buckley's charges, it was their first competitive defeat of the season, having won their opening three games. In the longer term, that might not do them any harm. It gives everyone a useful indication of where further development is needed, both for the squad as a whole and for individual players.

📷 Larry Peterson

There were positives, too. The sight of Tiff Balfour putting in some serious minutes was a real boost. She showed plenty of quality in her work, as well as that frightening turn of speed we know she has, Tiff could have an important part to play as the season develops.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for those of us watching from the outside was the quality of the two debutantes, Aleena Anwar and Havin Aygun. Both appear to be teenagers and, although we know very little about either of them at the moment, the general view was that their inclusion raised the standard of the squad. Will we see them starting games in the near future? Nobody would be particularly surprised if we do.
Add to that the impending returns of Libby Keeler, Brittany Varon, Amy Yeldham and Sara Merican and suddenly the picture looks that little bit brighter. Who knows? Maybe Jody Buckley has another gold nugget or two tucked away somewhere.

📷 Larry Peterson

The important thing now is how Orient respond and we won't have too long to wait. Next Sunday, the 13th of September, Orient travel to Hertfordshire to face Wormley Rovers in an Eastern Region Division One South league match.
We'll be there — and, of course, so will our famous LIVE-TEXT service. So, 'see' you next Sunday

O's line-up:

⚽ (1) Freya Faulker (GK) ⚽ (2) Beth Brogan ⚽ (3) Erin Cheyne ⚽ (4) Gracie Hickman ⚽ (5) Elissa Stonebrook ⚽ (6) Danni Hindley ⚽ (8) Stef Paci(C) ⚽ (9) Tiff Balfour ⚽ (10) Lily Aungier ⚽ (11) Kaylee Shurety ⚽ (20) Samantha Read
Bench
⚽ Shannon Wason ⚽  Aleena Anwar ⚽ Abby Caldon ⚽ Edie Miller ⚽ Havin Aygun.

✍ PF

Orient Outlook Podcast

Our thanks to Paul and Steve at OOP for their continued support of the ladies' team. It's worth saying that most of the independent fans-led groups do work hand-in-hand in order to help promote and publicise the club overall. Here's a link to OOP's audio update of the women's game on Sunday, they usually broadcast it within a few hours of the final whistle.
We always choose the YouTube recordings as we support any platform which doesn't require you to sign up to anything - just like LOFCwomen.com. Click the image to go straight to the women's report - it will save you hunting back and forth for it.

Click THIS LINK to view the full podcast on YouTube - a must for all Orient fans.

Re-live the game - as it happened

We enjoy making our Live-Text shows where we bring you minute-by-minute updates as the games progress. These events are fueled by the shared excitement of not knowing how the game will be resolved, Yesterday's match was no exception. We have Larry Peterson and Ben James (plus friends and the LOFCwomen.com air-horn) at the games, they send in reports every couple of minutes and we post them, live! straight onto our website. There are no adverts, no cookies, no tracking, no sponsors and there's no need to keep refreshing the page to see the latest update - we do all that. We'll be doing it again next Sunday....

So enjoy the moments - again - by clicking the graphic below:

A wider view...

When we get the time, we try to have a look around at the teams in our league and any other related news of interest. Here are Sunday's results concerning teams in our division and nearby.

Women's FA Cup, Qualifying round 1

Hashtag Reserves failed to show again and we notice they no longer appear in our division of the Eastern Region WFL.
Toby (in our division) lost at home to Dunstable who are themselves struggling in the the northern section of our league, that would suggest the northern Tier 6 league is stronger than the team in the southern division. That may come in to play in the League Cup competition.
Chelmsford continue their strong showing as they swept past mid-table Hertford.
Southern division side Colchester, currently pointless, saw off 4th placed northern division side Cambridge City - to reverse the conclusion we made from the Toby vs Dunstable result. Football eh?
Enfield have yet to play a league game but they made short work of Hackney.

Eastern Region WFL Division 1 (South)

Just the one league game this weekend saw Southend Utd join the top four clubs (all on six points) with a win over Wormley Rovers who will host our Orient side next Sunday.