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This Sunday Orient welcome up and coming, ambitious Croydon Athletic to Cheshunt for a top of the table clash. Croydon were promoted from Division 1 South and are going well in the higher tier sitting in first place with three wins and a draw. The club as a whole was bought by a consortium in 2023 including ex-Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha and rapper Stormzy (who he?....Ed) plus Crystal Palace’s ex head of player care, Danny Young.

Last year their top goal scorers were forward Kaydence Kabadaki (ex Sutton and Millwall) and midfielder Gemma Lambert, although Kizzana Fergus was not far behind. Fergus is on fire so far this season, with nine goals in four matches. Next highest scorer is Thalia McDougall with three. They are very much a “score one more than you” side having scored seventeen goals but let in thirteen. Their one clean sheet came in a 0-0 draw against 7th tier Tonbridge Angels in the FA Cup preliminary round, a tie they lost on penalties.

Orient warmed up for this match with a 10-0 win against Comets which included yet another hat trick (alright five goals) from super Sammy Rowland and a half-time lecture from Jason about application. Which tells us something about the standards he demands. Good to see Georgia Griffin back from injury and a good performance from Kallie Balfour at right full-back.

I don’t expect any surprises in selection but hope that those who are recovering or recovered from injury can continue to progress. There are rumours of a new signing but let’s wait and see as this is a great bunch who clearly get on really well. As for the match, this is one where Orient will want to put the pedal to the metal and make a statement against one of the better teams in the division.

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We been receiving a considerable number of questions from all manner of sources for some time now, most begin with "why don't the women's team.......?" or, more likely this year "why are the ladies scoring so many goals, it's ridiculous?"

They are fair questions but they do arise because the series of events which led up to today's situation have not been widely explained and so people can't be expected to understand how the team ended up in the position it's in. We seek to put that right.

Here's a link to our new web page A brief history of the Orient women's teams which, as concisely as we can make it, tells of the key events which has caused the current team to be playing at Tier Seven despite having a team capable of playing far higher in the National women's football pyramid.

As a quick look-up guide, here's a time-line which gives the very basic events (and their consequences) on a season-to-season basis. However, we urge you to delve a little deeper (by clicking the link above) to understand why things happened the way they did.

SEASON	KEY EVENTS
2013/14	No formal Orient women's team. Kikk Utd play in National league (W).
2014/15	Becchetti buys the club, makes deal with Kikk Utd who become Leyton Orient. Finish mid-table in Tier 4.
2015/16	Orient finish 3rd in Tier 4.
2016/17	Orient women win the league, league cup and regional cup. Promoted to Tier 3. The men are relegated to the National league. Eagle Investments buys the club at the end of the season.
2017/18	Orient women finish mid-table in Tier 3.
2018/19	Orient finish 5th in Tier 3.
2019/20	Season abandoned due to COVID
2020/21	Season cancelled due to COVID. LOFC split with women's group who leave to form London Seaward FC (now London Atletico, playing Tier 5). Orient have no women's registered club and are required to start next season at the bottom rung of the national ladder.
2021/22	New Orient team play at Tier 9 in the GLWFL. They finish 3rd and get promoted to Tier 8.
2022/23	Watershed year, Os win every game bar one draw. Promoted to Premier division at Tier 7.
2023/24	Good season, Orient finish 3rd in Tier 7.
2024/25	Poor start. Head Coach Martin leaves, Olivia Worsfold appointed supremo of women's football. Stephanie McCaffrey joins at the start of the season. The McCaffrey Football Group (MFG) is formed mid-season and starts to plan major changes. Some players are recruited from Hashtag Utd, they help to rescue the season. New coaches are appointed but do not take an active role in this season. Os finish 4th. MFG formally takes over the women's organisation and declares a "women's project" is now under way.
2025/26	Jason Stephens is appointed women's CEO and his coaching crew take over team matters. MFG re-position the club to attract top players and start the season with 100% record and dominate the league - so far. (written October 2025)

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Sunday 19th October was scheduled to be a spare week so there are only the two games going ahead. Both were rearranged because Orient and South London WFC are the remaining clubs in the Adobe FA Cup. Without saying it out loud... the league expects Tier seven teams to be out of the FA Cup already so we had league games scheduled on Cup weekends - they were postponed in favour of the cup ties and this Sunday is the chance for us and South London WFC to catch up.

Lge	Orient	:	AFC Croydon
Lge	South London	:	Comets WFC

If we beat AFC Croydon, we'll go top by two points and have games in hand over all the chasing pack. The clear intention is to do just that and then not relinquish the No 1 spot ... at all! But beware, Croydon are also unbeaten this season. Let battle commence!

It was something of a surprise to see South London WFC get beaten 2:1 at home by struggling Luton Town's Development squad. That looked like a home banker but, hey! you never can be sure.

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We'd like to "see" you when we fire up our Live-Text streaming service for this Sunday's big game against the league leaders, however we'd prefer to actually see you at the Cheshunt ground to cheer the ladies on - and see for yourself what these ladies can do! The game will be played at Cheshunt FC's ground in Theobald's Lane, it's a few minutes' walk from Theobalds Grove Overground station, kick off is at 2pm. Free entrance, free parking and refrshments are available.

Failing that, our correspondent Larry Peterson will be there and will be messaging into our live "studio" ("studio"..if only...Ed) where his words and photos will be broadcast every couple of minutes (ish) onto our LIVE-TEXT Streaming service. There's no need to refresh or swipe the live text page, it automatically updates itself every 60 seconds, you won't miss a thing. There are no Ads, no cookies and there's no need to log-in to anything. The page is already posted, you can find it at: LIVE-TEXT Page We invite you to join us and follow along as the match progresses.

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If you have an interest in and views about the women's team then please let us hear your thoughts and suggestions. You can contact us (anonymously if you prefer) via our contact form on our home page or just simply email us at lofcwomen@yahoo.com
We look forward to hearing from you.

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