Club Record

I think it will equal the club record if we keep a clean sheet Saturday....7 would break it.

I've seen 1971 mentioned and I think we were on six clean sheets (and consecutive victories?) when we met Birmingham who were also on six clean sheets (and consecutive victories?). Something had to give and predictably we did. We lost 0-2 and 16-year-old Trevor Francis scored for Brum. Distance may be lending enchantment to some of these recollections but I think this was the match that ended our run anyway. 

Indeed you are correct about Birmingham beating us, at home too.

There were two draws though in those six games

Yep, but chapter and verse for the aficionados and mild obsessives, like me. 

The run lasted from 16th January 1971 (1-2 away defeat at Sheffield Wednesday) to 13th March 1971 (0-2 home defeat to Birmingham, between Colin Prophett's 76th minute winner for Wednesday and Trevor Francis's 6th minute opener for Brum. 

In between; 
February 6th   Bristol City 0 Orient 0   (Position: 18th) 
February 13th Orient 1 Swindon 0  (Riddick, 63)  (17th) 
February 20th Watford 0 Orient 0  (16th) 
February 26th Orient 1 Norwich 0  (Dyson pen, 35)  - a Friday night game  (15th) 
March 6th       Millwall 0 Orient 1  (Allen, 1)  (15th) 
March 10th     Oxford 0 Orient 1 (Dyson, 60) - Oxford completed 450 minutes without scoring (14th) 

For those who don't remember (or have succeeded in forgetting) the 1970s, 0-0, 1-0 and 0-1 scorelines were very much in fashion.  In 1970/71, the team scored a total of 29 league goals, comfortably the lowest in the division, with Lazarus top scoring on 6.  Fortunately we also achieved 15 clean sheets, including 8 goalless draws.  This was topped in the 1974/75 season when we achieved 42 points and 12th place while scoring only 28 goals which must be one of the highest points/ goals ratios ever achieved in the Football League under two points for a win. 

Wow blimey I was at that game, lot of hope and hype about Trever Francis, he duly ablidged the Birmingham faithful

Trever was the wonder kid just burst on the scene, lot of hype before the game everyone knew he was gonna score, unplayable. After the game Trever and some team mates and some supporters went to Francis Road for photo shoot, it's not often you see your name in a town far from home.

Hi Dis, how are you?

Just trying to work out from memory how the defence would have lined up across those 6 games above? I suspect something like :- Goddard, Arber ( or Jones?) Rofe, Bennett & Harris. Any better guesses? 

After the Birmingham match, Orient won 1 - 0 at Middlesbrough and drew 1 - 1 at home to Carlisle, so completing a run of nine matches with five wins, three draws and one defeat.  It was just as well that they had those points in the bag because the end of the season was disastrous.  They played another nine games, losing seven and drawing two, scoring just four goals and including a run of five matches without scoring at all.

Regarding the 1974/5 season there was a short article in either the Walthamstow Guardian or the London Evening Standard reporting that a firm which had bought advertising at Brisbane Road was suing the club for its money back.  This was on the grounds that Orient were so boring that year that they didn't get any coverage on TV which the firm had expected as part of their payment for the advertising space.  The firm lost its case.