MillersMad Match Thread...Millers v Leyton Orient

[Heliosphan78]

Hello everyone and welcome to another match thread. Please post any early thoughts and in-play comments here as we welcome Leyton Orient, aka the O's, to the New York Stadium.

The Boss
Former Doncaster Rovers manager, Richie Wellens, was appointed boss at Leyton Orient on 9/3/2022.

Wellens has two promotions on his CV, as well as being an efl trophy winner with Salford City. He won the L2 title with Leyton Orient in 2022/23 and also with Swindon Town in 2019/20. Aside from that, he led the O's to the L1 play-off final last season where they were narrowly beaten by fellow Londoners, Charlton Athletic.

Highly regarded, Wellens was recently linked with the vacant Luton job. O's fans will be delighted that Wellens is still in situ and the likely man to continue the build going on at the club

Player(s) to watch
Dominic Ballard is top scorer with 6 goals in just 8 appearances. The 20 year old former England youth international will be brimming with confidence after a hat-trick against Doncaster last Saturday in their 4-0 home win.

Summer signing, Aaron Conolly, is another player to watch. The attacking midfielder, who has nearly 50 Premier League appearances to his name, was signed on a free transfer from Millwall in the summer. The 25 year old has scored 5 goals this season and along with Dominic Ballard, these two represent a big attacking threat for the O's.

Josh Koroma needs little introduction to Millers fans. He's scored 3 goals so far this season.

Played for both clubs
Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Josh Koroma, Adam Thompson. Jamie McCart played on loan at the O's.

Recent Form
Leyton Orient 4 v 0 Doncaster
Leyton Orient 2 v 1 Crawley (EFL Trophy)
Cardiff 4 v 3 Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient 2 v 3 Stevenage
Reading 2 v 1 Leyton Orient

Latest Odds
Millers win (15/8)
Draw (9/4)
Leyton Orient win (13/10)

Recent Meetings

(04/03/2025)
L1 Rotherham 1 v 0 Leyton Orient
(Sweeney OG)

(22/10/2024)
L1 Leyton Orient 1 v 0 Rotherham

Verdict on Leyton Orient
After the 4-0 mauling of Doncaster Rovers, Richie Wellens said in his post-match interview that "it was coming" and that "someone was going to take a beating"

You can begin to understand these comments when you look at the statistics and notice that Leyton Orient had a total of 50 shots (yes 50!) against Cardiff and Crawley. These were the two games immediately prior to them putting 4 past Doncaster. So with that in mind, it should come as no surprise to learn that Leyton Orient are currently the league's joint top scorers with 20 goals. On the other hand, they also have the leakiest defence in the league, shipping 22 goals.

Like us, Orient have had a big turnover of players in the summer, which may explain their indifferent start to the season. It's a very different team to the one we faced last season so it's hard to know exactly what to expect from them this term. But, with Richie Wellens in charge and the squad they have, I expect them to be challenging for a top 6 spot.

Massive optimism if we win this one because it will be a tough game. It'll be a challenge for us defensively on Saturday, just as it will be for Orient, especially with Nombe back in the mix.

Really looking forward to this one, enjoy the game everyone and UTM.

[RU66]

Martha not due back till today MH says be on the bench tomorrow. After last Saturday time to kick on get his best 11 available starting each game. No favourites.

[Ericsladkilnhurst]

A big game tomorrow, Leyton Orient a strong team, with some decent strikers who know where the onion bag is.
Time for our defence to get their act together otherwise we will get punished..

[Townerslovechild]

Martha not due back till today MH says be on the bench tomorrow. After last Saturday time to kick on get his best 11 available starting each game. No favourites.

ALL managers have favourites,I haven't seen any evidence of this with Hamshaw, plus he's had very little choice in defence and up front so far.
The fact that he hasn't picked McG every game doesn't show any favouritism, no matter what you think.

[CTMilller]

Thanks for your excellent, fact filled summaries, Heliospan. Always good to read.

Be interesting to see which forwards start given how well we played in the second half against Northampton.

Do we know any more about Reece James?s availability? I saw an Advertizer article that he is still being assessed after being taken off at half time last week.

[frogmiller]

Congratulations on another fantastic opening Matchthread post Heliosphan

[RU66]

ALL managers have favourites,I haven't seen any evidence of this with Hamshaw, plus he's had very little choice in defence and up front so far.
The fact that he hasn't picked McG every game doesn't show any favouritism, no matter what you think.

Looking forward to this game more than any since 1st game of this season cause of 2nd half last Saturday hoping Spence & Nombe start tomorrow.

[caytonmiller]

Looking forward to this game more than any since 1st game of this season cause of 2nd half last Saturday hoping Spence & Nombe start tomorrow.

Hope Spence doesn't. He's not as good as the other midfielder who will start Infront of him. I feel a new obsession coming

[Spuddy Speight]

I'm going for an away win. LO may be a tad too strong for us.
Their on field approach and application are very much to be desired by other League 1 teams.

[uttis]

Thanks for your excellent, fact filled summaries, Heliospan. Always good to read.

Be interesting to see which forwards start given how well we played in the second half against Northampton.

Do we know any more about Reece James?s availability? I saw an Advertizer article that he is still being assessed after being taken off at half time last week.

CT I haven?t seen an article suggesting James is injured but could be wrong, I thought his substitution at Northampton was purely tactical