The Leyton Orient Chronicle
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alfie Drayton damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Leyton Orient
Idris El Mizouni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market17 Aug 2026
Michael Craig attracts admirers
The name of Michael Craig has come up in conversations Leyton Orient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match15 Aug 2026
Leyton Orient find a way past Port Vale
Port Vale made Leyton Orient work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Dom Ballard
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Josh Koroma in the eights
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Michael Craig
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Leyton Orient turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Dylan Levitt
- Market The Dom Ballard story refuses to die
- Market Leyton Orient pick up Enzo Arreguín for nothing