Wellesley United

Club History

As well as many other famous clubs in English soccer, Orient boast a very distinctive design for their club emblem. Whilst Manchester United have their famous red devil and Tottenham use a cockerel, The O’s players proudly sport a pair of wyverns on their chest.

The wyvern is a mythical creature, which looks a lot like a dragon. In fact, it has the head and wings of a dragon and the body of a serpent. Naturally the particular wyverns that reside in East London are red and represent the colours of Leyton Orient and also have a soccer ball positioned between them on the badge.

You may have spotted other wyverns if you play any of the Final Fantasy or Dragon Age videogames and other sports teams and colleges also utilise them as part of their crest too.

The team’s mascot, Theo, is also a wyvern and you’ll see him at every home match meeting young fans, joining in with the celebrations after a goal is scored and also occasionally taking (and generally missing) a penalty during the half time break!

There’s a fantastic article on why the team utilises this fabled creature as the design on our website so don’t forget to head over to www.leytonorient.com to have a read and also check out all the other informative pages that can be found there too!    

 

 

Memorable Game

Leyton Orient 6 Newcastle United 1

06/25/2009

It may have only been a friendly though this was a famous win in East London against a Newcastle team that was still recovering after relegation from the Premier League. Orient thrashed Chris Hughton’s men by ruthlessly exploiting the fragile Magpies, who came into this fixture in a state of disarray.

 

The visitors were without a permanent coach for this fixture, with Hughton taking charge on a temporary basis following club legend Alan Shearer leaving his role as coach after failing to keep the club in the top flight.

 

Orient were about to begin their fourth consecutive season in the third tier of English soccer and were facing a side which included players of international class, including Ireland’s Damien Duff, Fabrizio Coloccini of Argentina and Nigeria’s Obafemi Martins.

 

It turned out to be a glorious day to be a fan of The O’s as the home team ruthlessly exposed the weaknesses of their opponents and scored with nearly every attack.

 

The home side opened the scoring after just four minutes, with former Chelsea midfielder Jimmy Smith heading home a free kick. Sean Thornton then doubled the lead from the penalty spot. The away team pulled one back shortly after through a spot kick of their own, one-time England midfield man Joey Barton converting.

 

In the second half Orient went on to score four more goals, the pick of them being a spectacular overhead kick from forward Scott McGleish. Defender Tamika Mkandawire (who would go on to feature in the US for the Tampa Bay Rowdies where he still plays today) added a fourth before Ryan Jarvis and Harry Baker completed the rout.

 

As is so often the case with exhibition games, the result was largely irrelevant when it came to predicting where the two sides would end up that season. Orient laboured to a 17^th place finish in League One whereas Newcastle romped home to win The Championship at a canter under Hughton, securing promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. This sunny afternoon in the capital is still remembered fondly by many supporters of The O’s though, as a day in which one of the giants of English soccer was well and truly put to the sword.