Orient Back to Winning Ways in League One
Today’s game featured two sides who got off to contrasting starts on the opening day of the League One season. With East Londoners Leyton Orient looking to bounce back after defeat to Huddersfield Town, while Wigan were looking to maintain their momentum after beating Northampton Town 3-1 on the opening day.
The O’s made four changes to the side that lost to The Terriers, with Sonny Perkins, Tyreeq Bakinson, Rarmarni Edmonds-Green and Azeem Abduali being replaced by Omar Beckles, Diallang Jaiyesimi, Ollie O’Neill and Idris El-Mizouni.
Leyton Orient XI: Simkin, James, Beckles, Happe, Adaromola, El-Mizouni, Clare, Koroma, Jaiyesimi, O’Neill, Connolly (Subs: Cahill, Simpson, Craig, Bakinson, White, Moorhouse, Abdulai)
The Latics remained unchanged from their victory last time out.
Wigan Athletic XI: Tickle, Sessegnon, Kerr, Carragher, Murray, Weir, Brenan, Francois, Hungbo, Saydee, Costelloe (Subs: Watson, Mabaya, Mellish, Trevitt, Wright, Mullin, Asamoah Jr)
First Half
Within the first five seconds of the match, James Carragher collided with Ollie O’Neill as the ball went forward from the kickoff, taking a knock on his left knee. Carragher tried to continue but appeared to be in a lot of discomfort before being replaced after five minutes by Jon Mellish.
This seemed to cause Wigan a few problems, out and in possession, as they struggled to get their press correct, with Orient knocking the ball around confidently. The O’s strong start was rewarded in the 18th minute after Idris El Mizouni drove through the heart of the Wigan midfield, after an excellent interception, finding Josh Koroma, on the right hand side, before his whipped cross was diverted into his own net by Steven Sessegnon with Aaron Connolly lurking behind him ready to have an effort himself.
Orient looked like a real threat on the counter, with shots from Jaiyesimi and O’Neill all testing Sam Tickle in the Wigan goal.
Second Half
The Latics looked to start the second half fast with Callum Wright coming on for the 19-year-old Brenan at half-time, with their first real attempt of note coming from Jensen Weir, but this didn’t trouble Simkin in the Orient goal.
After this, the game soon fell back into it’s pattern of the first half with Orient pressing well out of possession, causing discomfort in the Wigan defence, with Jaiyesimi winning the ball back and finding Josh Koroma, who rifled the ball into the roof of the next, scoring his first goal since returning to E10 in the summer.
The day went from bad to worse, for Steven Sessegnon as he was then sent off, after Jaiyesimi launched a clearance forward, which was miscontrolled by the Wigan man, who then, on the stretch, took Aaron Connolly out after chasing down the defender, the resulting free-kick was well saved by Tickle after an effort by Joe White.