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AFC Bournemouth – Cherry bomb!

The gods of narrative have spoken with this second round FA Cup tie. It’s an age-old FA Cup story of giants versus minnows. Riding into town are the very wealthy AFC Bournemouth. The men’s team is ensconced high in the Premier League with players some of whose annual salary will be more than Orient’s entire revenue. The rules of PSR give them every incentive to pump money into the women’s team and get them up the pyramid and they are doing very nicely in Tier 3, sitting second with a game in hand, and looking to making the WSL-2 (formerly the 'Championship').

Behind all this are moneyed American owners, the Black Knight Group, who are operating a multi-club ownership model. If the game is televised, owner Bill Foley can sit back and watch it while drinking some of his 2016 Merus Cabernet Sauvignon from his ski resort in Montana while stroking a white cat.

Matched against this fire power are the plucky women of E10, the lowest ranked team left in the competition. After finishing their laundry duties, they will consume a nourishing pre-match meal of pie, mash and jellied eels before hanging their flat caps up and going out to give a backs to the wall performance in the best traditions of cup history.

Don’t like that story? Well, here’s another one. Leyton Orient Women are owned by Americans, the McCaffrey Group, and they have a project. Led by Stephanie McCaffrey they want to ensure that women’s sport is properly financed, and the players are given proper support. A bunch of women and a very well qualified head coach have bought into this vision and dropped down the levels to play for Orient. They are here to make history and leave a legacy.

These women have all played at higher levels than Tier 7 and are not coming just to make up the numbers. They know what is required at this level and buy into “Intensity is our Identity” as results so far this season suggest. Both teams come into this game in great form and having had a week off. Bournemouth haven’t lost this season and neither have Orient, although working at a lower level. For Bournemouth goals are provided by Jenna Markham and Sophie Quirk whose performance will be matched against those of Sammy Rowland and Steph McCaffrey for the Orient.

I can predict busier time for Lola Durojaiye in goal for Orient then she has faced so far. Orient will also be looking for strong performances from captain Grace Gillard and her centre back partner Hayley West. The scene is set for a cracking cup tie with coach Jason Stephens promising high intensity football, unlike that faced by Bournemouth in most of their games.

For those curious about the preview title, see here: youtube.com/watch?v=_EBvXpjudf8

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Doubtless as part of the build-up to the season's biggest game so far, by some margin! Some of the players and coaching crew have been all over the place this week in order to get as many bums on seats as possible for this Sunday's big game, a 1:00pm kick off at the BetWright stadium at Brisbane Road. It's free entry too!
Here are the folks who've been on the road, telling everyone about what's going on....

Hayley West on the Orient Hour

The popular (though not with the opposition forwards) central defender, Hayley 'No Surrender' West joined in a zoom call with the folks at Phoenix FM's Orient hour show on Wednesday. Her endless enthusiasm and love of playing football came bursting through but her interview ended with the dreaded technical problems. We've recorded what we can and reproduced it on YouTube, it's about 15 minutes long. You can also listen to the entire hour-long episode on the Orient Hour on the Phoenix 98.0 FM website or on spotify. Click the image below for just the section with Hayley...

Craig Davidson and Jason Stephens on the Orient Outlook Podcast

Established as the leading unofficial portal for all things Leyton Orient, Paul and Steve at OOP invited two-thirds of the ladies' coaching team for the latest Sunday night podcast, episode 408! The two guys put quite a bit into focus and context about where "the project" is and to stress the importance of the up-coming game at home to AFC Bournemouth. Not so much the game itself but everything around it in terms of facing a top team filled entirely with full-time professionals and a playing budget the envy of many men's football league clubs. A lofcwomen.com 'Bravo' to Paul and Steve for hosting a great session. Click the image below to listen in to the interview on YouTube.

Georgia 'GG' Griffin features on the club website

Flying winger/striker Georgia Griffin was the subject of an in-depth interview for the Orient main website. If you missed it (you're not alone!) then click the image below to see her ideas on how things are going, her recovery from injury and her own aims for the season and beyond.....

Skipper Grace Gillard in the Orient vs Exeter programme.

Grace Gillard: Centre back, skipper and skilled spokes-person took the opportunity to update everyone from her perspective with a two-page spread in the Orient vs Exeter Programme. Another excellent piece of ambassadorship of the quality we've come to expect from Grace. If you didn't get to see it, we've copy-pasted it below....

When the opportunity to spearhead a new project at Leyton Orient came along in the summer, it wasn't one experienced skipper Grace Gillard could turn down. Grace is under no illusions about what Orient's women's team can be in the future - and she is determined to enjoy the ride as skipper. The 28 year old, who joined the club from Hashtag Utd in the summer, took a significant dip in playing levels to move across to the Os. Having played for clubs such as Watford and having spent time in the Essex Centre-of-Excellence as a youngster, the defender knows what good football looks like and wants to help Orient up the divisions in search of it. She says...

"I've come from four leagues higher and so have the coaches, most of the players have played tiers three or four and here we are in the seventh tier of the women's game. What the guys behind the team, Jim and Steph McCaffrey, have is a project - it's not about where we are now, it is about where we could be. What we are doing this season is setting the foundations. We have a squad that could play two or three levels higher than this but we want to keep the core of the team for two or three years to give us momentum. We are building the values and principles of what the team is all about. I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. You only have one career, so why not? I'm 28 so hopefully I can help the club get to where they want to get to."

Grace believes in the project she was sold by the McCaffreys, who are behind the O's push for success for the women's side...

"It may be seventh tier football at the moment but we are aiming far higher and we have the drive to get there. I had achieved everything I'd wanted at Hashtag and wondered what there was left that I could do. What we really would like are back-to-back-to-back-to-back promotions to get us to tier three, then other considerations come into it - such as playing budget and maybe even going professional. We'd love to get there without stopping, of course we would and that will hopefully start this season if we can win promotion from the Greater London League. It is a different ball game when you get to the higher divisions but the club are open to going pro in the future."

After a blistering start to the campaign, which has seen Jason Stephens' team top the Greater London League with a 100 per cent record after hammering every opponent they have so far faced, Gillard knows the challenge is to maintain that form and earn promotion as champions. Winning a first title with the side, in her maiden season in the East End, would bode well for the future of this ambitious group. She explains:

"The FA Cup run will get eyes on us and we want as much attention on us as we can get. All publicity is good publicity at the end of the day, isn't it? People questioned why I dropped down divisions to come here and there's a stigma about the level we're at but I know it's my job to keep the ball rolling - to be one of the faces of it. The challenge is to keep our standards when we're playing teams at grounds we are not used to and that sometimes the matches are not as much of a challenge. The level of intensity at training is as high as it would be if we were in a different division and when the games have been straightforward, we have challenged ourselves with different things like making sure we keep clean sheets every time. We have to keep our levels up and make sure we are accountable every single time we go out and play."

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As the only remaining Tier 7 club left in the Women's FA Cup, we're busy in that competition with Sunday's game at home to AFC Bournemouth. The Greater London Premier division teams are in league action (except us and Luton Town), the games are:-

Lge	AFC Croydon	:	AFC Leyton
Lge	Comets	:	Sporting Duet
Lge	Islington	:	London Accies
Lge	Tooting Bec	:	South London

AFC Leyton have a difficult task away at 3rd placed AFC Croydon and, just 2-3 weeks ago, this would have been a home 'banker'. However, Leyton scored a stunning 4:0 away win at fancied Sporting Duet and then put up a great display before going down 4:2 to Tier Six side Camden Town in last week's Capital Cup game. Croydon's league form has been unspectacular of late so perhaps the girls from Leyton may just get something from this game as they fight to get clear of the relegation spots. Our verdict:- A Home win - but not by much.

Comets have lately been scoring points recently and look on course for a safe-ish mid table position. Duet had a promising start to the season but their recent form has been patchy. Another close game in prospect. Our Verdict:- Another home win but only by the odd goal.

Islington Borough Ladies have slowly sunk to the bottom of the league but have been showing signs of a recent slow recovery. The UCL "Accies" find themselves in an uphill battle to stay clear of the bottom two positions. This is a crunch match for both sides, If Boro can pick up the win, the Accies will be firmly in their sights as the club they'll need to overtake to maintain their premier league status. If they fail, it will start to look like a mountain to climb. Our verdict:- These two to share the points - the battle to continue.

Second placed Tooting Bec (dropped 6 points so far) will face South London (dropped 5 points so far) will face off to decide which of them will provide Orient with the biggest challenge. Bec's heavy 7:0 defeat to us suggests they are some distance back, South London have been moving along smoothly and have picked up back-to-back league wins since their shock 2:1 home defeat to struggling Luton Town in October. Our verdict:- South London to put an end to Bec's challenge with a solid win.

There are strong and persistent rumours coming from the FA that some significant changes will be made to the women's national pyramid for next season, in which case, finishing first or second in the GLWFL premier division will very likely pay dividends - just as it did for last season's runners-up Hammersmith who are currently running away with their Tier 6 league.

All Orient's results, league and cups, can be seen HERE . It is also available plus the official league table (and much more) via our Info and Menu page.

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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. We read every message without fail.

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