19 October 2026
- Ben James on Duet defeat
- Audio briefing
- Ben's slide show
- Re-live the game
- Stu Hudson says...
Leyton Orient 3:3 Sporting Duet
Match Report – October 18, 2026
Cheshunt.
After a four-goal, second half comeback a week ago against League One South rivals Hertford Town, and to kick-off their defence of the Capital Women’s Cup (Intermediate Division). Orient were again at home on Sunday to face Sporting Duet – a rival from last season’s campaign in the Greater London Women's Football League’s Premier Division.
Not too many changes were made to the starting eleven but Aleena Anwar, one of last week’s goal scorers, was not eligible to play. This said, newcomer Molly Rose Sherrin, most recently of Billericay Town, made the 15-strong squad.
📷 Ben James
From the kick-off, it was apparent that this year’s Sporting Duet squad were not the pushovers from last season. They had added some serious depth and speed to their team and were brimming with confidence. Orient were on the back foot and it took all of five minutes for the visitors to take the lead. Forward Hannah Dalgliesh was sent clear of the O’s defence and easily slotted the ball into the back of Fliss Tatum’s net. Unfortunately, conceding early goals is becoming an unwelcome hallmark for Orient.
Sensing weakness, Duet continued to flood forward to extend their lead. Tatum, once again, was called upon to keep the O’s in the match. Duet’s pressure eventually began to waver as Orient steadied the ship. Striker Amy Yeldham came agonizingly close to tying up the match at the half-hour mark, but the Duet keeper was up to the task.
Just a few minutes later, Shannon Wason found herself a few yards from goal as a ball from Erin Cheyne was sent to her. Wason was first to get to the ball but her shot on target was blocked by the Duet’s keeper. Unfortunately for Wason, she got knocked over and immediately clutched her ankle. She remained down for several minutes and had to be helped off the pitch. Wason’s day was over, she was subbed off for Edie Miller.
📷 Ben James
Despite Wason’s injury, it was Orient who had gained the impetus and Duet could not keep the ball out of their net forever. Some solid open field play gave Yeldham an opportunity to shoot on target from just over 20 yards out. Her shot deflected off a Duet defender and landed right in front of a charging Lily Aungier. Keeping a cool head, Aungier easily tapped the ball past the keeper to level the match.
Orient almost took the lead a few minutes later – again it was Aungier – but the visitors’ keeper was up to the task. Defender Elissa Stonebrook was brought down as the end of regulation time approached, bringing a stoppage to play as she received attention from the physiotherapist. Right before half-time, Duet thought they had regained the lead, however Tatum’s fingertips deflected the ball away from the net and off the post to safety.
📷 Ben James
To start the second half, Edie Miller was replaced by Stef Paci. Interestingly, Duet switched their goalies.
Orient began the second half on the front foot, earning a corner. Yeldham came close to converting it – but no cigar. Libby Keeler had a go but was denied by Duet’s subbed-on keeper. It wasn't all one-way traffic as Duet had a go of their own from 30 yards out. Again Tatum was there as she saved the initial shot along with the rebound that had spilled fortuitously to an attacking player.
Just before 60 minutes, the match took a sombre turn. Stonebrook and a Duet player were challenging for a ball in open play. Suddenly, the O’s defender went down in obvious pain and clutching her knee. The match was stopped for close to 10 minutes as the physios from both teams attended to the stricken player. Unfortunately, Stonebrook was unable to get up and was stretchered off the pitch for further treatment in the dressing room.
Kaylee Shurety was brought on to replace her injured teammate and Sherrin got her first action in an O’s shirt as she was subbed on for Erin Cheyne.
📷 Ben James
A few moments later, it got even worse for Orient. Duet had a clear chance on goal as their shot from the right side of pitch had beaten Tatum. Attempting to stop the ball from crossing the goal line Beth Brogan handled it and was shown a straight red card. The subsequent penalty was slotted home by Duet’s Olivia Woodward to give her team a 2:1 lead.
Down to 10 players, the O’s didn’t yield. They almost converted a corner by newcomer Sherrin but were rewarded for their efforts about ten minutes from time as Duet were penalised in their own box. Paci stepped up to take the spot kick and made no mistake to tie up the match.
Despite Orient now being the dominant side, Duet retook their lead at 87 minutes though a counter-attack as the O’s defence didn’t have the numbers to cover. There was nothing much Tatum could do as Woodward steered a pinpoint effort into the goal.
📷 Ben James
However, Duet’s lead barely lasted sixty seconds. Almost immediately from the resulting kick-off, Libby Keeler found herself on the end of a pass at the edge of Duet’s box. She fended off a defender and powered the ball over the keeper to, again, level the match for the O’s. A lengthy spell of added time saw no more goals yielded, so the match headed to penalties.
Orient were first up and converted their kick. Duet then miss. Despite their advantage, Orient proceeded to squander their two subsequent penalties whilst Duet did not so gave them the advantage. Orient did manage to tie it up with their fifth attempt, nevertheless, Duet made no mistake and converted their fifth shot to give them the victory and bounce Orient out of the Capital Cup.
While the loss will certainly sting, it is mild compared with the status of Shannon Wason and Elissa Stonebrook. Their health and well-being will be at the top of the minds of their teammates, coaches, families and all O’s supporters. It’s heart wrenching to watch any player get injured and potentially face months of rehabilitation.
Brogan’s straight red card might also mean she’ll have to sit out a few matches, so it could be a short bench for Orient next week as they travel to Bedfordshire’s Ampthill Town FC for their League Plate match.
✍ Ben James
Orient team sheet:
Click on the name to see a popup image of the player
Audio report
If you are mainly interested in the women's team update, a HiFi copy of the Orient Outlook Podcast audio report (2 mins 30 secs long) can be heard by clicking HERE or on the image below.
You can also tune in to their full podcast of the previous week's ins and outs by clicking this YouTube link - no signup needed.
Sporting Duet (H) slideshow
Images by Ben James
Re-live the game - as it happened
Sunday's live-Text show was another roller coaster of emotion as, at half time with the score at 1:1, we thought we may have weathered the storm and could go forward to take this cup tie. In the words of live text commentator Larry Peterson: "I've not enjoyed a game more than this one - despite our ultimate defeat". Such was the cut and thrust this group of women served up along with a "no prisoners" commitment to their cause.
These 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 "blood n' guts" 3:3 draw and ultimate penalty shoot-out, just click the graphic below:
Sunday's results round-up
The Capital Cup (CC) started it's programme to find this year's winners at the intermediate level, that's a London and home counties knock-out competition for teams playing at Tiers six and seven.
There were seven games involving teams from our league - they are shown with a *.
There were also two league games in Division One - South (D1S) of the Eastern Region Women's football league.
| CC | Enfield* | H:W | Chessington |
| CC | Orient* | 3:3 | Sport Duet (W) |
| CC | Brighlingsea (W) | 1:1 | Chelmsford* |
| CC | Great Danes | 1:5 | Colchester* |
| CC | Hashtag Res* | 0:9 | Southend* |
| CC | Hutton* | 1:1 | Tigers (W) |
| CC | Toby* | 6:2 | Leigh |
| D1S | AFC Welwyn | 2:3 | AFC Sudbury |
| D1S | Wormley | 4:3 | Hertford |
⚽ In a strange hat-trick, despite none of our teams from the ERWFL losingt their Capital Cup games in 90 minutes. Three of them went to penalties, all three lost! All the others won.
⚽ In the league, the two "AFC" teams, Welwyn and Sudbury Reserves played each other. Sudbury took the three points and move above us on GD although we have two games in hand.
⚽ Wormley did us a favour by beating Hertford thus promoting us to clear second position on GD. We're sitting pretty although Enfield and Chelmsford could both overtake us - IF they win their games in hand.
The current league table
Updated after yesterday's results.
| Team | Pld | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | AFC Sudbury Res | 8 | +12 | 13 |
| 2 | Leyton Orient | 6 | +7 | 13 |
| 3 | Hertford Town | 8 | +6 | 13 |
| 4 | Southend Utd | 7 | 1 | 12 |
| 5 | Chelmsford City | 4 | +10 | 9 |
| 6 | AFC Welwyn | 7 | -7 | 9 |
| 7 | Wormley | 8 | -5 | 8 |
| 8 | Toby | 6 | -9 | 8 |
| 9 | Enfield Town | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| 10 | Colchester Utd | 3 | -7 | 0 |
| 11 | Hutton | 4 | -10 | 0 |
Stu Hudson says...
A piece put together by LOFC Media and Stuart Hudson, of the Orient women's coaching crew, was featured in the programme for the League One home game against Blackpool. We have reproduced most of it here....
The side began their maiden campaign in Tier 6 with a bang, stringing together three victories before an FA Cup exit to higher-ranked MK Irish. A draw with Wormley Rovers and a win over Southend pushed them on further in the Eastern Region Division One South before exiting the League Cup 6-0 at home to Harpenden - again from a higher level.
Since then, loss of key players has kicked in and Jody Buckley's team suffered league defeat for the first time at AFC Welwyn recently. Ahead of facing Sporting Duet at Cheshunt today in the Capital Women's Cup (Intermediate), Stuart made it clear how much they have struggled for a settled XI.... Addressing the defeat by Harpenden, he said:
"in the first half, we held our own for 40 minutes and then shipped two goals. There were some bad mistakes from us and we lost Tiffany Balfour to a knee injury. "Beth Brogan has had an injury so we have had to make another signing but, remember, we've had to begin again this season and we are building a core base of players in this league.
The three of us - Jody, myself and Marc Wilson - want to implement a new ideology and get that across. We've suffered with injuries - there are lots of ACLs this year across the league and at this level you are constantly recruiting because of that.
We want the best. Look at Freya Faulkner in goal, who has also been injured. We have a base with Stef Paci, Elissa Stonebrook, Yelds (Amy Yeldham) but it's only through word of mouth from other players or advertising on social media that we are able to bring new players in.
It's been difficult but we have managed to make some great signings like Gracie Hickman, who has been brilliant this season, plus Edie Miller and Brittany Maldonado, Aleena Anwar who was only 16 in August. There's bundles of talent here.
We've had some players move on and brought replacements in. You just hope that being Leyton Orient appeals and is enough draw someone in."
The trio of Buckley, Hudson and Wilson have their work cut out, following the club's promotion from Tier 7 as Greater London Women's League Premier Division champions last term. They do have a great rapport and Hudson admits he would welcome as many Orient followers as possible to come and watch the team at Cheshunt.
"As a team, the three of us speak every day, talking about training and preparation. We watch matches and clips on social media. It's a big commitment but we do love it. It definitely needs three of us, though.
"We are different people but we gel together. It's a big job and we know how we want to play: we like to have the ball and keep it, score goals. But we have more than one style and know we have to be versatile, we can fit our play around who the opposition are - we're not a team with just one way to play. If you do that, people will find you out. We want to be easily adaptable as a team and that is drilled into the girls. What we would love now is for a big crowd and as many O's supporters as possible to come out and watch us play."
We'll be back on Thursday with a preview of next Sunday's League Plate match away at Bedfordshire side Ampthill Town plus any other news we can gather in the meantime.