28 September 2026
- Ben's report on Sunday's loss
- Audio briefing
- Ben's slideshow
- Re-live the game
- Other results round-up
Leyton Orient 0:6 Harpenden Town
Cheshunt
Sept 27, 2026
Coming off an impressive and emphatic clean sheet victory over First Division South adversaries Southend United, Orient might have felt optimistic coming into their League Cup draw against Harpenden Town in the Premier Division. Alas, it was not to be for the Os, as The Harps ran roughshod over their lower tiered opponents.
📷 Ben James
Manager Jody Buckley fielded a relatively unchanged side from last week – Dani Hindley was back in the squad and striker Amy Yeldham donned the captain’s armband. Samantha Read, a starter from last week was absent; however, new signing Amy Day was on the bench.
It was Harpenden who set the tone, right from the kick-off with their first opportunity on goal coming three minutes in. Harps striker Sophia Amanor lashed a pass from her goalie on target forcing O’s keeper Fliss Tatum to make her first of many saves. Orient’s first decent chance came just after 10 minutes but Stef Paci’s attempt went wide. Nevertheless, it was in Orient's half where most of the play occurred. Given the lack of rain over the past week, the Cheshunt pitch was firm and played fast and several players from both squads felt the consequences. At 19 minutes, Shannon Wason went down hard and had to be replaced by newcomer Day.
📷 Ben James
Orient’s best chance of the half came at just before 25 minutes as Yeldham forced Harpenden’s keeper to make a great save. Agonisingly for the O’s, the rebound was kicked around in the box by both squads before being cleared to safety.
But it was the Harp’s with most of the pressure after this. Tatum was forced to make several saves and clearances as Harpenden smelled blood. Five minutes before the end of the half, they broke the deadlock as Amanor headed a pass into the back of the net. Just a few minutes later the Harp’s lead was doubled as Amanor scored again. Her initial shot was saved by Tatum but Amanor was given a second bite of the cherry as her subsequent shot hit the post, an O’s defender and then fell kindly across the line. Any thoughts Orient had of a second-half comeback were quickly extinguished as Amanor, at 49 minutes, again headed the ball into the back of the net – giving her a natural hat trick and sealing the O’s fate. The Harp’s striker by far was the best player on the pitch. Orient had no answers for her size, speed and ball control.
📷 Ben James
From this point on, the only thing for the O’s to play for was a consolation goal. But the Harps were not in a charitable mood and extended their advantage to four goals just before the hour mark. Five minutes later, just as Buckley was to send on striker Tiff Balfour and forward Aleena Anwar, Harpenden scored their fifth.
At 70 minutes, Beth Brogan and a Harps player collided, forcing a long period of stoppage. Brogan got the worst of it and slowly walked off, clutching her side. Erin Cheyne, who had been subbed off earlier, came back on to replace her.
📷 Ben James
Balfour, once again, showed her class and Harpenden were forced to increase coverage on the O’s speedy striker. Her pace forced a Harps defender to concede a free kick, but nothing came from it. Unfortunately for Balfour, this enhanced coverage saw her brought down hard at 85 minutes and she had to leave the match with a noticeable limp and did not return.
Just before 90 minutes, Tatum made a series of outstanding saves to keep the score as it was, but at 90 minutes Harpenden got their sixth to put an exclamation point on their victory and eliminate the O’s from the League Cup.
📷 Ben James
Orient will quickly want to place this match out of their memories. They didn’t lose because of a lack of effort – the women most certainly placed it all on the line. They just lost to a much better opponent.
Next up is an away match to AFC Welwyn. Welwyn have struggled so far this season with only one win and have conceded more goals than anyone else in the division, so this could be the tonic needed for Orient to rebound quicky and positively.✍ Ben James
Orient team sheet:
Click on the name to see a popup image of the player
Audio experiment
Our good friends, Paul and Steve, at the Orient-Outlook-Podcast had a rare Sunday off - as did almost the entire Leyton Orient football club - with the exception of the women's first team.
As there was no podcast over the weekend we can bring you our audio briefing, about 90 seconds of audio only summary of the loss against Harpenden. Just click the Podcast image below to listen in....
Harpenden (H) slideshow
Thanks to Ben James for the images for this slideshow.
Re-live the game - as it happened
Making Live-Text shows can be a bit frantic but it's a lot of fun bringing you minute-by-minute updates as the game progresses. Not knowing the outcome adds some spice to the mix. 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 - every game.
To review Sunday's blow-by-blow disappointing 6:0 defeat at the hands Tier 5 side Harpenden Town, just click the graphic below:
Sunday's fixtures round-up
There were eleven games involving clubs in our (Eastern) region on Sunday. All are League Cup matches (LC):
Regional League Cup ties
Eastern Region Division 1 (South) teams (that's us) are shown with a *.
| LC | Dunstable | 0:4 | Atletico |
| LC | Haringey | 7:0 | Ampthill |
| LC | Hutton* | 0:6 | Wroxham |
| LC | L Orient* | 0:6 | Harpenden |
| LC | Royston | 2:1 | Enfield* |
| LC | Southend* | 0:3 | Histon |
| LC | Bowers-Pitsea | 4:2 | Real Bedford |
| LC | Brentwood | H:W | Thetford |
| LC | Chelmsford* | 0:1 | AFC Sudbury |
| LC | Stevenage B | 4:1 | St Albans |
| LC | Watford Dev | 5:3 | Hitchin Belles |
⚽ The four remaining clubs from Division One - South, that's where we are, all lost. That means the Tier 6 teams are not yet at the level of those from other leagues or our own Tier 5 premier division. Not the best day for hopeful giant killers!
⚽ Chelmsford City did us proud with a close 1:0 defeat to AFC Sudbury, who currently sit third in the premier division. If we were into betting, we'd back Chelmsford to win our league this season and move up to tier 5 for next year.