Leyton Orient Women

Ampthill 2:0 Leyton Orient

Match Report – October 26, 2026
Ampthill, Beds.

Two strikes from distance leave Orient empty-handed. Ampthill Town FC move on the the 3rd round of the League Plate with a 2:0 win over Leyton Orient.

📷 Roy Warner

Plenty of effort, plenty of pressure, but precious little to show for it. Orient’s second-round cup trip to fellow tier-six side Ampthill Town ended in frustration as two spectacular strikes settled a contest in which the visitors enjoyed much of the initiative.

Bedfordshire supplied the sunshine, although a gusty wind took some of the warmth out of the occasion. Orient arrived without injured trio Tiff Balfour, Shannon Wason and Elissa Stonebrook, while suspension ruled out Beth Brogan. Recent recruits Molly Sherrin, Amy Day and Aimee Brosnan all started, and there was also a debut for new signing Megan McAniskey.

Orient made the brighter start and came tantalisingly close when Samantha Read struck the crossbar with the home goalkeeper beaten. A few inches lower and we might have been telling a rather different story. Instead, it proved to be the nearest Orient would come to finding the net all afternoon.

📷 Roy Warner

Then, in the 27th minute, Ampthill produced something special. A superb effort from distance gave the hosts the lead and Orient a harsh reminder that having the upper hand counts for little on the scoreboard.

There was no collapse in response. Orient continued to have the better of proceedings, but the promising approach work failed to produce the sort of clear opening that leaves supporters wondering how on earth it stayed out. At the interval, Ampthill held their 1–0 advantage.

The familiar attacking reinforcements followed after the break, with Libby Keeler, Aleena Anwar and Lily Aungier introduced to add power, pace and punch. It is a move that has paid dividends before, notably against Hertford Town, and there was every reason to hope it could turn this one around.

📷 Roy Warner

Instead, on the hour, Ampthill did it again. Another shot from range, another goal, and suddenly Orient had a considerably steeper hill to climb.

The remaining half-hour, plus five minutes of added time, brought plenty of endeavour but little change to the pattern. Orient pressed and persisted, yet the clear chances they needed never materialised. Ampthill’s two moments of quality were enough. Aleena Anwar did pull out a "Beckham" in the dying seconds which looked like it was heading for the top corner but the home keeper managed to palm it away.

This was not a bad Orient performance, which perhaps makes the result all the more frustrating. There was commitment and enough encouraging play to keep us hoping, but the decisive touch in front of goal belonged to the home side.

📷 Roy Warner

The familiar line about paying for missed chances only tells part of this story. Beyond Read’s effort against the bar, Orient’s greater problem was turning pressure into chances in the first place.

There is also a question worth asking about when we deploy our attacking strengths. Keeler and Anwar have helped transform games from the bench, but asking them to chase a deficit leaves little margin for error. The rescue act has worked before; it is a demanding habit to rely upon.

An afternoon of what-might-have-been, then. Orient had much of the running. Ampthill had the two finishes that mattered.

✍ Paul F

Audio report

If you prefer your report as an audio file audio report (3 mins 44 secs long), click HERE or on the image below.

Re-live the game - as it happened

Sunday's live-Text show was a frustrating affair as our ladies took control both in terms of territory and in possession yet the goal/s just did not come.
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 topical at the moment - No PHP code) 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 2:0 defeat, just click the graphic below:

Sunday's results round-up

With six "women's regional plate" cup games (LP), one League Cup match (LC) and an FA Cup tie (FA). All the results went pretty much as expected with Enfield doing well against Tier side Fulham despite the 3:0 defeat.
Games involving teams from our league are shown with a *.
There were no Eastern Region League games - We remain in 2nd spot.

The current league table

Updated after Oct 18th league results.

We'll be back on Thursday with a preview of next Sunday's League match away at Hertford plus any other news we can gather in the meantime.