Leyton Orient vs Cheltenham Town - Brisbane Road, London - Saturday 8th December 2007

A cold Saturday in December seemed like the perfect time to make the now traditional trip to see Leyton Orient take on Cheltenham Town. With friends supporting both sides, they have been in the same division for a few years now (although that may not continue for much longer on current form), which gives a good opportunity to see a Saturday 3pm kick off, and have a few beers into the bargain.

We had the most expensive seats in the ground, which I was slightly shocked to find cost £35, so more that I pay at Arsenal. That was for the equivalent of Club Level though, with access to a nice warm bar, and with seats practically on the half way line. Amusingly, at about 25 minutes before kick off, the Leyton Orient manager came up to the gallery to speak for 5 minutes, giving his thoughts on the team, and on the game ahead. Incredible to see a professional football manager doing that right before the game, and it made Arsene Wenger's reading of the team on telly seem a bit tame by comparison.

The game itself was played in the pissing rain (it always seems to rain when I go to Leyton Orient), and on a pitch that started off Ok, but which cut up fairly badly as the game went on. Not that much slick passing was happening on the pitch, of course. This was a game between a top four side and a bottom four side, and there really wasn't all that much between them - certainly not as much as there would have been between opposite ends of the Premier League. League One is definitely more even, and it was probably only the home advantage, plus a couple of dangerous looking moves, that made the difference for Orient.

One amusing sight at the game (apart from some of the "limited" skills on show on the field), was the fact that John Terry's brother was playing - sporting the classic Terry good looks too! He must be annoyed occasionally, that his brother is England captain, whilst he is gracing the pitches of League One, making a living, but probably only just. He looked like one of the better players on show, and for some of the others, it was quite hard to believe that they actually play football professionally, for their living - such was the clogging on display.

The other main observation from the game (other than the £3 programmes - shocking!) was that there were a good number of robust challenges to entertain us. What in the Champions League would be a likely red card, and in the Premier League would get a certain yellow card, you may not even see a free kick at this level. Part of that is because the players aren't as good - and if you punished everything with Champions League standards, there would be 3 players left on the pitch at half time. But it was good to see the "victims" of these challenges mostly getting up immediately, unscathed, and getting on with the game.

After a number of post match beers, in Leyton and elsewhere, the final pub stop of the evening was in Whitechapel, at the Blind Beggar pub. This was the scene of one of the Kray twins' murders in the 60s, although sadly now, the pub has been tarted up significantly, and is overrun with Kray tourists. They even give you special "Blind Beggar" pound coins in your change, which consist of a black sticker on every pound coin - most strange. Standing at the bar, I couldn't help wondering if the salad with chorizo and rocket was a feature of the 60s menu too. A very surreal venue, kind of a 21st century pub, but still very much trading off its past.