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Archived News from November 2004

STAGSNET`S STATISTICAL PREVIEW
27th November 2004 11:11


Leyton Orient are our next league opponents. And the Londoners are best known as FA-Cup giant killers, i.e. reaching the semi-finals way back in 1977-78, the Stags' only season in the old 2nd division, where Orient, as their name was then, was one of the opponents. In the final home game that season on April 29, 1978 in front of 6,336, Sandy Pate scored his last league goal for the Stags in a 1-1 draw which was essential for the Londoners in their eventual successful fight against the drop.

The “O's”, who played a single season in the old first division in 1962-63, the Stags' first promotion one, have done a couple of name swappings during their nearly 100 years of League soccer, being elected to the old 2nd division in 1905 as Clapton Orient. Just after World War II, they changed their name to Leyton Orient – and during the 1966-67 season, they swapped their name to simply “Orient”. And in 1987, they changed their name back to Leyton Orient. As a result of this, the Stags have faced Leyton Orient under all their three names and the Londoners also faced the Stags in their first-ever league season in 1931-32. And the first home game was won 4-3 on January 16, 1932 in front of 6,719 who saw Weightman, Bowater, Johnson (2) as Stags scorers – and in fact the “O's” faced the Stags in all their div 3 (S) seasons.

At home, the Stags have twice beaten the Londoners with a three-goal margin. The first was a 4-1 on December 27, 1969, inflicting the eventual div 3 Champs their biggest defeat that season, Stags goals Roberts D 2, Stenson and an own goal watched by 7828. The second was a 3-0 on March 23, 1993 due to McCloughlin hitting the target twice and Withe netting once attended by 2776, thus gaining revenge for the Stags' biggest-ever defeat against the Londoners, a 1-5 hammering away on November 28, 1992. The home game on May 31, 1947, lost 1-3 with Chessell scoring for the Stags seen by 4412, must be the latest date ever for a league home game in Stags League history. And the 0-2 on March 15, 1969, was the Stags first home league game after the famous FA Cup exploits reaching the quarter-finals in the 1968-69 season.

Brisbane Road – or Leyton Stadium as the ground of the “O”s also is called – have never been a happy hunting ground for the Stags over the years as only three of the previous 21 league outings in London have been won.
Here they are:
* On September 25, 1937, two goals from Crawshaw, then upping his tally to eight out of 25, helped the Stags to a 2-1 victory over Clapton Orient in front of 8590 spectators
*The 1985-86 season was Orient's first-ever in the basement. On February 15, 1986, the Stags picked up a very crucial 1-0 win with Hitchcock saving a penalty near the end and Kent moments later hitting the only goal – that secured the third consecutive away win during a spell that saw the Stags win eight out of nine games. The Orient side then included former Stags loanee Ian Juryeff, the much-travelled striker who 1983 scored 15 times in 19 games for then Swedish 4th division side IFK Munkfors – only about 40 miles north of my home town. (More details on that game in the Vintage Stags section)
* The up-to-date last away win at Leyton Orient was a 3-1 as recently as March 4, 2000 (goals by Darrell Clarke, Chris Greenacre and an own-goal) watched by 4281. So all Mansfield's away wins at Brisbane Road have been achieved under all of Leyton Orient's different names! (Clapton Orient in 1937, Orient in 1986 and Leyton Orient in 2000)

The teams also met in the 2001-02 season, when the home fixture attended by 5,168 was won 3-2 thanks to goals from Disley, Williamson and Greenacre but the away one was lost 2-0. The Leyton Orient side in March 2002 included Iyseden Christie.

Last season, an Alexander injury-time strike gave the “O's” a draw at Field Mill after Iyseden Christie had hit the post moments earlier. Dimech hit his first-ever Stags goal early on in that fixture, while the away one – nearly as usual – was lost 3-1 with two more Gary Alexander strikes for Leyton Orient, Buxton grabbing the equalizer to 1-1 shortly after the half-hour mark.

The Stags lost their latest home league fixture 0-1 to Macclesfield after a very poor game watched by the writer of this preview, while the “O's” drew 1-1 away at Chester before losing 1-2 at home to Wycombe. Mansfield, in their latest league outing, draw 0-0 away at Boston, who wasted a penalty late on in the first half.

Current Leyton Orient manager Martin Ling, who took over the hot-seat after the sacking of Paul Brush at the end of September 2003, played three league games for the Stags midway through the 1990-91 season.

Played for both sides: Eric Bryant, Reginald Bungay, Iyseden Christie, Eddie Edmonds, Greg Fee, Ernie Gillatt, Warren Hackett, Stuart Hicks, Dai Jones (left full back), Ian Juryeff, Allan Livingstone, Michael Marks, James McGeorge, Mark Peters, Samuel Robinson, Ted Roseboom, Mark Smalley, Chris Tate.

Home stats: P 21, W 8, D 9, L 4, GF 30, GA 23
Away stats: P 21, W 3, D 4, L 14, GF 20, GA 42

Season Home Date Away Date

1931-32 4-3 1932-01-16 0-4 1931-09-05 Div 3 (S) – as Clapton Orient
1937-38 3-1 1938-02-05 2-1 1937-09-25 Div 3 (S) – as Clapton Orient
1938-39 1-0 1939-04-08 0-0 1938-12-03 Div 3 (S) – as Clapton Orient
1946-47 1-3 1947-05-31 1-3 1946-10-12 Div 3 (S) – as Clapton Orient
1966-67 1-1 1967-04-22 2-4 1967-05-12 Div 3 (old) – as Leyton Orient
1967-68 0-0 1968-04-16 0-0 1968-04-15 Div 3 (old) – as Orient
1968-69 0-2 1969-03-15 0-1 1968-08-24 Div 3 (old) – as Orient
1969-70 4-1 1969-12-27 0-1 1969-08-30 Div 3 (old) – as Orient
1977-78 1-1 1978-04-29 2-4 1977-12-03 Div 2 (old) – as Orient
1985-86 1-1 1985-09-18 1-0 1986-02-15 Div 4 (old) – as Orient
1989-90 1-0 1990-02-24 1-3 1989-11-25 Div 3 (old) – as Leyton Orient
1990-91 3-3 1991-04-16 1-2 1990-09-08 Div 3 (old) – as Leyton Orient
1992-93 3-0 1993-03-23 1-5 1992-11-28 Div 2 – as Leyton Orient
1995-96 0-0 1995-08-19 0-1 1996-01-13 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
1996-97 0-2 1996-09-14 1-2 1997-01-04 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
1997-98 0-0 1997-11-29 2-2 1998-04-04 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
1998-99 1-2 1999-02-13 1-1 1998-09-08 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
1999-2000 1-1 1999-09-11 3-1 2000-03-04 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
2000-01 2-0 2001-04-21 1-2 2000-11-04 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
2001-02 3-2 2001-10-05 0-2 2002-03-19 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient
2003-04 1-1 2003-08-16 1-3 2004-01-17 Div 3 – as Leyton Orient

Svante Bernhard aka Sweden Stag (pictured, above right)

 

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