13th August 2010 - League One
Leyton Orient 1 vs 3 Charlton Athletic
When I was younger, I remember thinking how cool would it be to own a shirt from all 92 football league clubs. Visiting all of them never really came into my thought process.
And it still hadn't when Rich asked if I fancied going down to Leyton Orient on a Friday night in August 2010.
It was sold to me on the basis that tickets were £10 and, quite frankly, I had nothing better to do with my Friday night. Sad, I know!
So Rich, Dan Bell (Rich's mate) and I jumped on the train to Orient to watch this early season London derby, and the experience was well worth the £10 based mostly on the people that we saw alone.
Orient's Brisbane Road from the outside looked quite smart, with flats embedded in all four corners of the ground - a must have for any big Leyton Orient fan, especially as certain flats had balconies facing inside of the ground itself for the perfect view.
We were, though, stood outside the fairly new West Stand which was opened about five years previously. In ground hops to come it would become the norm to do a 360 of the stadium before a game, but as we hadn't really broached the subject this didn't happen so we didn't really get a good view of the rest of the ground and it's other less modern stands.
This had been my first experience for a long time of what I would consider to be 'lower league football.' But I've always thought that you have to be a little odd to go week in week out to watch a side from that level, and the people within Brisbane Road only added weight to my theory.
From the drunken woman who stacked it whilst trying to clamber over a row of seats, only to face-plant the floor - to the (probably also drunk) older gentleman with his trolley offering a steward a drink out of his outrageously over-sized mug, the crowd provided a lot of the entertainment.
The football itself didn't quite live up to the general public, but it was a decent early season showing from both sides with Charlton taking a lead midway through the first half through Alan McCormack only for it to be cancelled out early in the second half by Scott McGleish.
But after ex-West Ham player Christian Daily saw red, Charlton turned the screw, winning 3-1 thanks to goals from Scott Wagstaff and a goal deep into injury time from Chris Solly.
The three of us left Brisbane Road having thoroughly enjoyed our evening's entertainment and whilst we sat on the platform waiting for our train, Rich posed the question of going to more football grounds in the future and asked if I fancied going to Colchester United a fortnight later.
With memories of Orient and it's bonkers (arguably more inebriated) fans still very fresh in my memory, I almost immediately said yes hoping for more of the same.
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