\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Several times a month Brian Barnes and Chris Cowell make a 100-mile road trip from their Colchester home to watch their favorite soccer team – Leyton Orient of the English third division.<\/p>\n
Thirty years ago this week, FrontRowSoccer.com editor Michael Lewis journeyed to London to pursue ambitious project: write about English soccer, sometimes with local flavor, other times with a U.S. twist. He wound up attending seven matches over 12 days in all four professional leagues. He wrote the stories for Soccer New York, a print publication, in January 1996. The old English third division is the new League One. This game and story happened on Dec. 22, 1995.<\/p>\n
By Michael Lewis<\/p>\n
LONDON \u2013 Several times a month Brian Barnes and Chris Cowell make a 100-mile road trip from their Colchester home to watch their favorite soccer team \u2013 Leyton Orient of the English third division.<\/p>\n
Orient, which hasn\u2019t performed in the first division (now Premier League) since the 1962-63 season, is far from being one of England\u2019s glamour teams. It would be easier for them to support a larger and more popular team, let\u2019s Tottenham or Arsenal. Or they would watch another third division club, Colchester.<\/p>\n
Orient is in their blood.<\/p>\n
They were at Leyton Stadium on Brisbane Road in east London on the rainy night of Dec. 22 to watch Orient play Rochdale.<\/p>\n
Cowell\u2019s father was a policeman in the Leyton section of the city and brought him to the ground when he was four years old. He got hooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never supported anyone else,\u201d said Cowell, a management director for a bank.<\/p>\n
Barnes, who brings his sons to the games, is also a professional, a project manager for British Telephone. \u201cIt\u2019s the hope of getting some sort of success,\u201d Barnes said, explaining why he has supported Orient. \u201cIt would be very easy to work and support a big club.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a city that has a dozen or so soccer teams, that Orient has been able to survive is a minor miracle. The team has a small, yet loyal following, averaging 5,157 fans a game.<\/p>\n
How small is the club? The press room is actually the training room. Ray Balding, another lifelong fan who is the press steward on match day, hands out lineups and programs to the media onl a couple of feet from exercise bikes and weights.<\/p>\n
The writers and photographers apparently didn\u2019t mind the equipment.<\/p>\n
For Balding, being the press steward is a chance to be close to the team he loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a love affair,\u201d said the 43-year-old Balding, a warehouse van driver who has been an Orient fan for 37 years. \u201cOnce you\u2019re in it, you\u2019re stuck. You always think something good will come around the corner. I\u2019m an optimist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even through the best and worst of times.<\/p>\n
In 1978, Orient played Arsenal in an FA Cup semifinal, the club\u2019s furthest advancement in the competition.<\/p>\n
This past October, Orient was the subject of a television program named, \u201cYours For a Fiver,\u201d named after the attempts of former Tony Wood, who tried to sell the then financially ailing franchise for \u00a35 late in 1994.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very embarrassing,\u201d Balding said of the attempted sale.<\/p>\n
Wood eventually had a taker \u2013 Barry Hearn, who made his reputation promoting other sports \u2013 boxing and snooker (billiards). He paid more than \u00a35. Hearn has tried to pump new life into the team. He has rolled back children\u2019s season tickets only \u00a310 apiece ($16 a season) to attract younger fans.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the more reasonable prices, Cowell is able to take his two sons \u2013 David (8) and Paul (5) to games, making his family a third-generation Orient family.<\/p>\n
David said that he enjoys the soccer. \u201cThey\u2019re a nice football club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Paul, however, hasn\u2019t appreciated what\u2019s happening on the field. What does he like most about going to the games? \u201cDad brings me to the shop,\u201d he said of buying souvenirs.<\/p>\n
Orient started out the season strong at 6-2-4 but has fallen on lean times recently, entering the match with a 1-8-1 streak. It had only won once in the league since Sept. 30, a 3-1 victory over Cambridge United Nov. 18.<\/p>\n
On this rainy night before an encouraging crowd of 5,399, when most fans would rather stay home or do some last-minute Christmas shopping, Orient managed a 2-0 victory over Rochdale, relying on the long-ball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe start was pleasing,\u201d team manager Pat Holland said. \u201cWe should have been three-nil up in the first 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think we have to rebuild. I will not get carried away with the win. I will be banging on the chairman\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n
And people like Chris Cowell will keep returning, walking through the doors at Brisbane Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything\u2019s possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you lose hope, then there\u2019s no sense trying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday: The original Wimbledon team\u2019s struggles<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is the original story about Leyton Orient from 1982:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: Several times a month Brian Barnes and Chris Cowell make a 100-mile road trip from their Colchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[198682,748,1117,14785,393,162,198683,97,4884,40164,257,1170,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-648297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-brisbane-road","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-covid-19","11":"tag-covid-19-pandemic","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-english-premier-league","14":"tag-english-third-division","15":"tag-fa-cup","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-leyton-orient","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-rochdale","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115763309843797695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}