Our thanks to Stephanie McCaffrey, of the McCaffrey Football Group (MFG), de-facto owners of Leyton Orient Women's football, for a brief appraisal of 2025 and a quick look ahead into 2026. According to Steph (but in our words...Ed):-
The season so far has gone pretty much to plan, the new team was recruited along the lines of the plan to find a team of quality footballers whose lifestyle matched the ethos of how the Leyton Orient senior women team was visualised... iow: with the right mix of professional quality play together with time and space to achieve an appropriate life/sport/work balance that would not be possible for full-time professional footballers.
Following the major success of the recruitment process which reflects the attractive player circumstances at Orient, it was envisaged the roster of our players would be too strong for Tier Seven so a set of targets were formulated to provide realistic goals... promotion and a strong FA Cup Run were chief among these.
It soon became clear that promotion was well within reach so some extra targets were added - these included scoring 200 goals in a single season. Having already scored 107 league goals in 9 (of 18) games plus 40 in various cup competitions, even this unlikely target now looks achievable.
Looking back, everything went to plan except for our defeat to AFC Bournemouth in the FA Cup. Not doing ourselves justice on the big day was a serious downer, something the group will take forward and use to add further determination both individually and severally.
Losing the game on 4th January to the weather was a bummer, each time we try to get clear air between us and Tooting Bec (leading the chasing pack), we suffer a postponed match and so now we must wait until we get the chance to assert ourselves properly.
We now look forward to some better weather and to finish off the season as undefeated champions, maybe a cup success to go with it. A key enabler to this would be to see more O's fans come to the games and make a noise!
GLWFL Premiership round-up
Only 3 games played on 4th Jan 2026.
The new year started with something of a damp squib for the ladies first team when their league match against Islington Borough Ladies was called off due to a frozen pitch at the Cheshunt stadium - Orient's home ground for this season.
Two GLWFL premier division games were postponed leaving just three to be played out. The full results were as follows:
Lge
Leyton Orient
P : P
Islington Boro
Lge
South London
P : P
Sporting Duet
Lge
Luton Town
3 : 1
London Accies
Lge
AFC Leyton
0 : 1
AFC Croydon
Lge
Tooting Bec
3 : 0
Comets WFC
This week's winners and losers in terms of the premier division table...
➡️ Luton Town 3:0 London Academicals
We predicted Luton would squeeze past the Accies with a tight win. Perhaps it wasn't so tight as the Bedfordshire ladies have been improving steadily as the season has progressed and that is clearly still in evidence as our east London neighbours London Academicals succumbed to goals from Nia Bowman, Andie Dickens and Amber Leighton. Town's skipper Shakeela Hussain received a yellow which could be described as "taking one for the team". This win raised Luton up the table from 8th to 6th and probably means others will be looking down the table from now on.
➡️ Tooting Bec 3:0 Comets WFC
We're two-for-two at this point in that our forecast was for a Tooting Bec win over a strangely mis-firing Comets WFC. Goals from Daniela Rodrigues Aguiar (x2) and Lucy Hearn means 'Bec' continue to chase down Orient for the top spot by joining us on 27 points. It's nice to see former Orient player Tara Copeland turning out for Comets. We do wonder how much Comets are missing important players like McKenna Doyle who seems not to feature much lately.
➡️ AFC Leyton 0:1 AFC Croydon
Although we got also this one correct in terms of the result, we didn't foresee that a solitary goal from Croydon's top scorer Kizzanna Fergus (her 11th of the season) would be the difference between the sides. We're compelled to say "well done" to the Leyton girls. Croydon certainly didn't get it all their own way as Siane Francis-Duncan was sin-binned as part of the visitor's desperation to hang on the three points.
All Orient's results, league and cups, can be seen HERE .
The official league table (and much more) can be seen via our Info and Menu page.
Here's a quick view of the premier division after Sunday's games...
Pos
CLUB
Pl
GD
Pts
1
Leyton Orient
09
106
27
2
Tooting Bec
11
10
27
3
South London 1st
09
23
19
4
Sporting Duet
12
-17
18
5
AFC Croydon Ath
09
-10
17
6
Luton Town Dev
11
-17
13
7
Comets WFC
11
-9
12
8
London Academicals
11
-31
12
9
AFC Leyton
11
-25
4
10
Islington Borough
10
-30
4
Interview with Lola Duroyaiye.
Lola Duroyaiye
Orient's senior goal keeper, Lola Duroyaiye, is the latest of the women's first team players who've been featured in the club's match programme.
If you didn't get to see it, we've reproduced it here...
Lola Duroyaiye has found her way back to the Os, or perhaps more appropriately, the Os found her again.
Orient’s keeper is a key component in Jason Stephens' side as they take complete command of the Greater London Women’s Football League (GLWFL) Premier division this season. Lola was a youngster at the club until recently. She moved away and joined Stephens at Hashtag United before re-joining the Os along with a number of Hashtag’s other players over last summer. Since then, Lola has been a fixture in goal, conceding just a single goal in the Premier Division as her side marched into the top spot with 100% record. That goal was a consolation on behalf of rivals Sporting Duet WFC who lost to 14:1 to the ladies from E10.
Lola adds:-
"I was at Orient from the age of sixteen to twenty-one, when I graduated from university I felt it was time for a change of direction in my football career and a new environment so I went to Hashtag and played a season for their reserves. Then I was asked to come back to Orient so I had some thinking to do because it is a club I spent a long time at. I chose to come back and all the girls were really nice."
"Being inexperienced, I knew there would be expectations on me from Jason and what he and his staff want. But the place feels like home and getting to play twice at Brisbane Road felt good and also a bit weird! A lot of the players I knew had moved on so it did feel very new but I have settled in very well this time around”.
Lola has bought into the project of the women’s team owners, the McCaffrey family, who want to see the team progress up the levels from its current modest Tier Seven status. Promotion will surely follow come the end of this campaign but the twenty-two year old says it’s all about building a future for generations to come from this term.
“It’s about building the foundations for those who follow us later on” she adds, "I haven’t played higher than Tier Seven so playing with team-mates who have been at Tiers two and three set the standard for me. Jason and his team have had faith in me from the start, which is really helpful”
The FA Cup exit to the Cherries was a chastening experience but one which underlined just what the standard is in full-time football - if the Os are to reach it further down the road.
For the first time this season, Lola - who works for a logistics company - was put under intense pressure by a very capable side, as she admits…
“That showed us the level we want to get Leyton Orient to. We’re not professionals, it’s not a career for us at this stage, we all have jobs and family commitments outside of football. If we are to get to the level Bournemouth are at, then we now know how much work we’ll have to put in".
What are those Sunday’s like when Lola has little to do whilst her team mates are netting goal after goal at the other end and how does she remain motivated? She adds:-
“ Sometimes there‘s not loads for me to do in terms of goal-keeping , yeah! But I have to make sure I am doing everything right in preparation to play and that includes eating the right food, looking after yourself properly and going to the gym. I’m using this year to get experience and I just hope I can get close to the level of my team mates are at. They’re all amazing and I think we have learnt from our mistakes against Bournemouth. Sometimes I just think ‘Wow! I play with all these footballers who have played much higher, I’m still young for a keeper but, before Bournemouth, I had only let in one goal during the FA Cup run.“
Lola is proud of the way her team play, given how straightforward most of their fixtures have been this term.
“We play out from the back, we look to pass through the team and that’s an essential part of the side under Jason. We like to be in control of matches and from my perspective, it is just so nice to watch the team play from where I am on the pitch.“
Words: Matthew Nash
Get in touch...
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.
STOP PRESS:- At the time of writing, we understand next Sunday's 'John Greenacre Memorial Trophy' (aka: GLWFL League Cup) match against Tier 8 side United Dragons is in doubt. According to the club's official X channel, Leyton Orient are now looking for opponents for a friendly match for the same time. We assume United Dragons are unable to fulfil this fixture.
Everything is prepared for a game at Cheshunt stadium with a 2pm Kick off. We'll confirm as soon as we know.
