Leyton Orient vs Cheltenham Town - Brisbane Road, London - Saturday 21st October 2006

With Arsenal not playing until Sunday, there was an opportunity to go and watch some of what my Cheltenham-supporting friends call "real football". After a trip for pie and mash in the East End, it was off to Leyton in the pouring rain for Orient against Cheltenham. I have been to this fixture before, and generally found my neck hurting towards the end, after all of the long balls. With Leyton Orient and Cheltenham both in the bottom three of their division, a high quality game was guaranteed!

Despite being several levels below the Premiership in terms of football quality, the prices (£18 for the away end) are not that far off what you would expect in the top leagues. Still the facilities are not appreciably worse than those at Portsmouth. I was sitting in the posh new stand, which had an indoor lounge, with a bar and free programmes - a bit like Club Level at Arsenal!

The match started, and Orient, without a win for ages, scored within 5 minutes or so. The forwards for both teams were big guys, a real handful for defenders, and they played a physical, hassling game. I noticed that when either keeper took a placed goal kick from the ground, all 20 outfield players were crammed into a very small part of the pitch, towards where they expected the kick to go. Literally no outfield players were outside a very small pitch area. It was the same at corners as well, the defending team had nobody further forward than the edge of their own box. All very different to much of the Premiership, where tactics and positioning win over getting bodies into specific areas.

At half time, there was a power cut in the only stand which had any use for power - this meant no beer! Shocking! The game resumed, and Cheltenham got a penalty. Their "best" player saw his penalty saved, it was a very poor penalty indeed. 10 minutes later, Orient got a penalty themselves, and made it 2-0. The game played out after that, some thrills and spills, a few good chances (mainly for Orient), and commitment replacing the skill that you see in the Premiership - which is no bad thing in itself.

A good day out, but I admire people who pay £20 for this quality of football week in, week out. Orient is a great small club, which many people have deep local affections for, but lots of them obviously aren't willing to cough up to see them either, as the 4,500 crowd testified.