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Leanne Bates, first half hat-trick in just 36 minutes.

After a difficult opening to the season, Orient's ladies have now found some form with two consecutive victories. Last Sunday's Capital Cup 3:0 victory at (higher league) Welling Utd was followed by this Sunday's home game against Brentford in the Greater London Women's Premier League which saw the ladies in red produce an impressive 7:3 scoreline to take the points. It also condemned the Bees to a third league match in which they've conceded seven goals.
The Os remain 2nd bottom in the GLWFL and in the relegation zone but only by a single point and with four games in hand. How do you get to have 4 games in hand so early in the season? This was due to our late arrival in the Greater London Premier League having been accepted into the Essex County League. The whole thing was upended by the FA (we still don't really know why) so we were squeezed in to the GLWFL after the teams in it had already started their programme. Spilt milk ands all that...! You could argue we're keeping our powder dry. There's a long way to go.
Goals from the ever reliable Leanne Bates (with a first half hat-trick), and from the exciting and very speedy Sion Kamiende, plus contributions from a re-invigorated Liliana Almeida, also goals from Stephanie McCaffrey and Ebony Heath were enough to see off an able Brentford side but whose defence is proving to be their main problem.
Young Lottie Behan, who made a very successful debut on the previous Sunday, kept her place between the sticks and continued to impress. Indeed, the nature of this win was an example of everyone working hard and operating as a unit within a coached system. Everyone in the squad can take pride in their individual and collective contributions.
As we predicted in last week's match preview - Brentford's top scorer Chelsie Berry found a way to hit two goals, both from corners, plus another strike from Lillie Elsbury meant the visitors hit three first half goals. That went a long way to producing an uneasy feeling among the on-looking Orient fans who, despite enjoying four first half goals (a hat-trick from Leanne Bates and a typical 100 mph breakaway by Sion Kamiende), the home ladies reached half time with only a slender one-goal advantage.
The second half saw the west Londoners continue to threaten but it was the ladies in red who found the incisive edge to move away comfortably with goals from Liliana Almeida (50 mins), Stephanie McCaffrey (69 mins) and Ebony Heath (85 mins) which we think was her first touch after coming off the bench just a minute earlier. Sion Kamiende was robbed of a second goal when she raced away to break through the defence but was up-ended by the out rushing keeper. Shona Chitate Samuriwo put her penalty down the middle but the Bee's keeper didn't buy it and parried the ball, Shona got a second chance from the rebound but skied her attempt as the keeper closed her down.
Goal assists have been accredited to Jordan Feldman (x2), Layla Crouch-Salmon (x2) one was yet another of her corners headed in by Liliana. Further assists were made by Stephanie McCaffrey, Riley Whale and Liliana Almeida. Something of an all-round team performance!
The second half saw a tightening up of the defence with Chloe Gormley, Grace Alexander and the ever improving Riley Whale starting to gel in a way you'd want your defence to do. Grace Collins-Edwards had been keeping Brentford's left back and wing back penned in with her rapid forays down Orient's right wing but it looks like coach Martin wanted to change things around for the second half so Grace was replaced by Stephanie McCaffrey.

Sorry Shona, here's a video of your penalty.

Coach Danny martin commented: "A much more disciplined second half from us... 3 poor goals to conceed, but the best mistakes are one's that we learn from and put right.. Second half we did that and controlled the game..."

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Orient line-up:
⚽ Lottie Behan (GK) ⚽ Layla-May Duffield ⚽ Layla Crouch-Salmon ⚽ Grace Alexander (Capt) ⚽ Chloe Gormley ⚽ Riley Whale ⚽ Shona Citate-Samuriwo ⚽ Liliana Almeida ⚽ Leanne Bates ⚽ Grace Collins-Edwards ⚽ Jordan Feldman ⚽ Sion Kamiende ⚽

Subs
⚽ Tayla Gencarelli ⚽ Jessica Parr ⚽ Ebony Heath ⚽ Stephanie McCaffery ⚽ Shelbie Welch ⚽

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If you prefer your news in audio format, Steve and Paul at the OOP continue to work with us to feature all the latest from the women's teams. If you want to hear only the women's news then click here to hear that via YouTube (no sign-up required). If the audio track starts from the beginning, you can fast-forward to 1 hour 10 minutes to be close to the start of the women's update. It is an excellent broadcast so we'd recommend all O's fan to listen to the whole thing.

In order to get an idea of how the whole women's football arena is shaping up and our part in it, we like to keep tabs of the other teams in our league, the Greater London Women's Football League. Here are the scores from Sunday 27th October 2024:

The up-to-date league table, our season's results and fixtures can be viewed HERE.
Camden and Islington Utd (C & I Utd) were once again brushed aside, this time by Luton Town who moved a little farther away from the relegation zone. C & I remain pointless and are conceding almost 6 goals per game, it must be difficult for their players to keep turning out when it seems they are not yet ready for Premier division football.
Comets are perennial title contenders but things looked difficult after a draw and a defeat in their first two league games. They've certainly recovered from that and have now won their last six matches, that's more like the Comets we're used to. Their 3:1 win over much-fancied Hammersmith has confirmed they are back on the championship chase and have taken over the top spot.
South London confirmed their status as a strong Premier division side with a 2:1 win over previous table-toppers Islington Boro. The north London side started the season on fire but have failed to win in their last three outings and now sit mid-table. They are the O's next league opponents (next Sunday) but they do have a good record against us having won one and drawn one of last season's league meetings.
Camden Town won the battle of the giants with a hard-fought 1:0 away win at previously unbeaten Tooting Bec. Camden have dropped just the one point so far this season and are equal on points at the top with a game in hand. It's official, Camden Town are the team to beat this year....

It's another Greater London Premier league match next Sunday with an away game against Islington Borough at their ST ALOYSIUS PLAYING FIELDS #2 pitch. This looks a tough game to predict so, if pushed, we'll plump for honours even on the day. We'll bring you a match preview on Thursday evening.

A big thank you to our contributors for your valued input! If you have any comments related to the women's teams, we'd be very happy to hear from you. You can reach out via email, 'X', Instagram, or WhatsApp to Larry on 07802 6408900. All the links are available on our home page.
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