Fans of Leyton Orient Women

Sammy Rowland plundered 30 goals in her first ten league matches this season, Poppy Binding then took on the mantle of goalscorer-in-chief following injury to the O's striker. Since hitting an eye-watering 42 in 18, Poppy has been moved a bit deeper in an altered Orient side facing down the business end of the season without some key players.
Manager Jason Stephens explains how crucial absences have seen him call on young players and sign others on dual registration to cope with the injury list he and his staff have faced.

"We had a small squad anyway and it was important to bring in good players and not rotate too much. We didn't feel we needed a huge squad to get the upper hand in this league. That was a risk we took, though obviously, you can get injuries anywhere and we've had five big ones - although none of them were actually picked up in matches, they have all either been accidents in training or away from football.
We lost our striker Sammy Rowland to an MCL (medial collateral ligament) injury during a shooting drill, Emily Dilliway twisted her knee in a warm-up, Ellie Leek left to move up north, Georgia Griffin had a hamstring injury for a while and Wiki Fronc has also had a hamstring problem. She is of someone who does ultra marathons and long-distance challenges, 100-mile runs. People's work has also been a factor. We're managing it this season but we did get down to the bare bones at one point. We had to bring in youngsters, the academy is a great point to draw back on, having just rebuilt it.
It's too early in the development in some of the young players for us to put them into the first team. So I brought in Maddie Biggs, who has played for Ipswich and Billericay, and Flo Donnelly who has played for me before. Against South London recently, we had two players get sick the night before the match but as a manager, you get used to dealing with things that come up."

Stephens admitted he did get some stick for the fact his team won 3-0 at South London, one of their smaller margins of victory in the Greater London Women's League Premier Division. However, we are closing in on the title and have the final of the Capital Women's Cup - Intermediate to come against Hammersmith at Dorking Wanderers' Meadowbank ground to come on April 26 as we look to make it a hat-trick of silverware in the maiden campaign at the club. Stephens added:

"We had the highest percentage of the ball that we've had in any game this season, I'm not making excuses but we missed two penalties - one was a great save, one a poor penalty - but we had no warm-up and our routine was disrupted. The pitch was hard and bobbly, South London are an organised, defensive side who are difficult to break down and love a physical challenge. But we have another cup final to look forward to now.
Because of our huge goal difference, we need just two wins in the league to get over the line as champions. This is what we play the game for - we all chose to come down to this level and we want to do that decision justice. The teams we face wouldn't want us to play at ten per cent, or 20 per cent. They want to face the best version of us. We want to break records, we want to concede the fewest goals in a league season. We've only let in two league goals and they were both own goals."

The finish line is in sight so make sure you keep an eye on the O's results to see how they fare in the final defining weeks of the campaign.