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Leyton Orient 1-3 Wolves


By Tom Bason
April 21 2014

Wolves all-but secured the League One title today with a 3-1 victory over long term top of the table botherers Leyton Orient. Goals from Richard Stearman and Bakary Sako gave Wolves a two goal half time lead, but Dean Cox pulled one back for the O's just after the break. Substitute James Henry wrapped the game up with a sweetly struck effort in injury time.

- Kenny Jackett made just one change to the team that thrillingly beat Rotherham United on Friday with Jack Price coming in for Lee Evans. Evans was taken off at half time on Friday, but was on the substitutes bench today. If I have one criticism off Jackett this season, it's his squad selection and rotation. With only two days off since the last match (and a wealth of studies have shown that teams struggle after this little rest) and promotion secured, I thought a we might see a couple more changes; Matt Doherty was arguably our player of the season until he picked up an injury but he's barely had a look in since his return. Similarly, Leon Clarke is a £750,000 signing who was the League One leading scorer upon his arrival, but Nouha Dicko has been leading the line week in week out. I could understand Jackett playing his strongest XI each match when before promotion was secured (even if I didn't necessarily agree with it), but I'm surprised not see a few more changes at this stage of the season.

- All season, Jackett has given his two wingers different instructions; generally having one holding his position and one drifting inside. Whenever Michael Jacobs plays on the flank, who can be sure he won't stay there for long and today was no different. With Sako on the left generally getting chalk on his boots, Jacobs was moving wherever he wanted on the pitch. On occasion, Dave Edwards would drift over to the right to fill in, but normally that area of the pitch was left free. This gave Sam Ricketts plenty of room to move into, and fresh from scoring a wonder goal on Friday, he wasn't afraid to get forward in support.

- The first half was a very open affair with both teams having good spells, but neither really able to turn it into total dominance. Wolves took the lead through a Richard Stearman header after Danny Batth won a header from a right footed outswinging corner. To be honest, it looked like Batth fouled his marker, climbing all over him. And we maybe had a stroke of luck just before we doubled the lead as Stearman appeared to block a shot with his arm. Not long after, Bakary Sako picked up a loose valley, exchanged a one-two with Dicko and fired a half volley past the keeper from the inside left channel.

- Orient were the better team at the end of the first half, forcing Carl Ikeme into two good saves and wasting a couple of other really good opportunities. Perhaps slightly worryingly, for the second game in a row we went into half time with a two goal lead, but were slow to start the second half. Orient were quickest out of the blocks, and it was more a question of when, rather than if they would halve the deficit. Again, we were unable to really shut the game down, and Dean Cox's goal was taken to delay the title celebrations. But, Orient weren't really able to capitalise on thus and we started to get more a foot hold into the game again, led by Kevin McDonald. He does have a tendency to drift out of games, but when he's involved he is a class above everyone else in this division. I've no doubt he has the ability to step up to the Championship, and probably even higher; I think it's more a question of whether he wants it.

- The second half was turning into the sort of game where Nouha Dicko should thrive; using his pace and strength to hit teams on the counter attack. So, I was slightly frustrated to see him withdrawn for Leon Clarke - a player with a very different set of qualities. Clarke held up the ball up well, but with the change we lost some of the offensive impetus we had previously. Clarke did work hard though, but his most notable contribution was when he tracked back half the length of the pitch and put in a tackle on the edge of our area. At the same time, James Henry came on for Michael Jacobs, playing as a more orthodox right winger. Henry's a bit of a strange player - for a winger he doesn't have much pace (although he may be deceptively quick given the way he shuffles) and his crossing is poor, easily the worst of our wide men. His two main qualities seem to be an eery ability to beat defenders in close proximity and an eye for goal. He wrapped up proceedings with a well struck, low drive from thirty yards that nestled in the bottom corner.

- Jackett had made one more change by this time, bringing on Lee Evans for Michael Jacobs. This meant another midfield reorganisation, with Henry moving to the left and Edwards moving to the right. This kind of illustrates the versatility of our attacking midfielders, and also the importance of the solid base that's provided by Kevin McDonald and Jack Price. Whether we will be able to get away with the three floating attacking midfielders as we step up a level is a question that Jackett and his coaching staff need to work on over the summer.

- This was a classy touch from Orient:

 

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Leyton Orient 1-3 Wolves
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:04:30:09:24:36 by toomb.

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