Ahead of the new season we talk to the team everybody loves, even Chris, Leyton Orient.
Name: Chris Smith
How long have you supported your team? 7 years
Five words to describe last season? Great start, awful awful ending
Best point of last season? Either the Millwall or Southend away games. I’ll go with Southend, you cant beat a win over your local rivals to start off, Sean Thornton was spectacular both on the playing field and and at annoying the Southend fans.
Strength of last season? The spine of the side, most teams in this division would kill to have Mkandawire/Chambers/Boyd in their starting 11.
Weakness of last season? Full Backs. Purches was awful at worst and just slightly above average at best, Unfortunately we saw the worst part more often. For Left Back we rotated between two players, Charlie Daniels a spurs loanee who was gash and Aiden Palmer a young player with promise but was quite often out of his depth.
Current terrace favourite in your side? Well the crowd’s favourite player to chant at(Jabo Ibehre) has been released. One of the few players to escape criticism from the home crowd is Tamika Mkandawire so i’ll go with him.
One player you`d happily drive to his next club? Stephen Purches, with Granville coming in to solve the Left Back issue he’s the weakest link in the first 11.
One thing you would tell your team`s manager? Stop trying to accomodate 3/4 Centre Mids!, get some quality wingers in to provide some service to our front men.
Young player to look out for this season? There isn’t really anyone from the youth team who will make an impact. Jason Demetriou made a number of strides last season and I expect this to continue this season, especially if he gets a chance in his preferred position.
Hope for this season? Like most Mid Table L1 sides i’m hoping that we can somehow sneak into the Play-Off places.
Expectation for this season? Anywhere between 12th and 18th really, with 5 new faces still to come in though this could all change.
Who is going to win League One? Again this could change with signings but you cant really look past Leeds. They’ve assembled a very good squad and only really need another striker to complete it.
Who is going down? I’ve said this every season for the last 2 years but i’ll go with Cheltenham, on the crowds and budget they have it’ll be very hard for Hereford to survive. Yeovil to me look like a side lacking ambition and I can see them going down also. The 4th one is guess work but i’ll go with Crewe, every man and his dog is rejecting them this summer and I can see them losing Maynard.
So Cheltenham, Hereford, Yeovil and Crewe
Where will you finish? Right now i’ll say somewhere around where we finished last year, 15th
