To the Not So Mystic East...

My first trip of the season has taken me to the East - East London to be precise to see Leyton Orient & Oldham square off in League One. Oldham came away with the win but the game showed the more challenging side of lower division English football betting.

All three goals (Oldham won 2-1) came fairly directly from mistakes. You can track back all goals to errors eventually, but if you see the highlights you can see the keeper not really deal with Pawel Abbott's first, a real lack of defensive communication for the O's equaliser and Orient gave the ball away needlessly for the winning penalty.

From a football betting point of view I was impressed with how Oldham looked pretty comfortable once they were in the lead, which might be something to bear in mind if you can find in play markets.

As for a couple of players to watch and bear in mind, well. Pawel Abbott, the Oldham striker, looked excellent with his back to goal and played as the central striker in a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 formation depending on your point of view. Any injuries to him (and he has had them in the past) could affect the Latics chances. Jason Demetriou of Orient usually catches the eye whenever I see him. He's a left winger with a nice first touch, a bit of pace and the ability to cross the ball in with real whip that's difficult to defend against. Oldham ended up using three different right backs during the game - after he had Andy Holdsworth booked early on there was a swap at half time with youngster Alex Marrow. Then when he was booked it was change time again. Orient didn't, or couldn't really get him into the game enough.

Finally, on manager watch, it seems Geraint Williams is still to commit himself to a long term contract with the O's.