Phil Yelland takes a look back through the history books to find out how The Bluebirds have fared during previous visits to The Breyer Group Stadium.
Saturday’s game at what older supporters will know as Brisbane Road will be our fifth visit to the ground. Three of those came when the clubs were in Division Three and two when we were in the National League.
Our one win at Orient came on Easter Saturday 1969, when two goals from George McLean gave us a 2-1 win on our way to securing safety in the third tier. That April victory also gave us our first and only double over The O’s, having won 3-1 at Holker Street earlier in the campaign.
We have also picked up a draw at Brisbane Road as recently as August 2018 in the National League in what was Ian Evatt’s third game in charge. We took an early lead through Jack Hindle, who is of course now playing football in Malaysia, but were 2-1 down late in the game when Raul Correia (now playing in the Welsh Premier League with Bala Town) struck the equaliser with his only goal for the Club.
Our last defeat at the ground had come in April 2018 when we were fighting relegation. Despite taking an early lead through Luke James, things went wrong as the game progressed and we lost 4-1, finishing the game with ten men following Dan Jones’s dismissal for two yellow cards.
Our first ever trip was in Division Three back in November 1967 when we lost 4-2, with Bobby Knox and Dave Storf scoring our goals. In early April 1970 we lost 2-0 at the ground in our second last game of the season – we were already relegated, and Orient were about to be crowned champions.
Let’s hope on Saturday we can collect our second win at the venue.