Unsurprisingly Bournemouth started with the team that had performed well at Yeovil, but against a better team that were not prepared to allow us time on the ball our game lacked purpose and penetration. The contrast between the Orient players, moving the ball around swiftly with accurate passing, and ours, desperately looking for non-existent options before being hustled into giving away possession, was embarrassing at times. Given that only Best and Hollands are newcomers, the lack of understanding in the team is disturbing. O'Driscoll's frequent changes of formation certainly didn't help the situation and may have contributed to our problems.
It took luck and some often desperate defending against sustained Orient attacks to get us to half-time only one down. Howe produced a succession of saving headers, Steele hit the bar, Stewart saved brilliantly from Alexander's shot. The only goal came from a deep cross from the left, Stewart produced another fine save from Alexander's initial header but was powerless to prevent the Orient striker from nodding in the rebound.
Things didn't improve much after the break, as the half began with some comedy defending from a cross that ended with the ball rebounding of Howe into the arms of the grateful Stewart. Then, 10 minutes into the half, Bournemouth opened their account for the season with a goal quite out of keeping with their display so far. Cooke, out wide on the left, spotted Hayter making a run into the box between the Orient centre-backs and picked him out with a perfect diagonal ball, which James duly headed into the top corner of the net. While the fans tried to remember what they were supposed to do when this sort of thing happened, Bournemouth embarked on 10 minutes of quite decent play. A quick break by Foley following an Orient corner saw his cross met at full stretch by Best who diverted the ball narrowly wide. Minutes later, another Orient corner, another Foley break, Hollands beat his marker to a high ball and rolled the ball to Cooke, unmarked on the edge of the box, who had plenty of time to take the ball on and side-foot it past the keeper.
Disbelief all round at the unlikely reversal of fortunes, not least from the Bournemouth camp one suspects. We could even have had a third following some confusion between the Orient keeper and his defence in dealing with a ball on the edge of the box, but that was as good as it got. We were conceding too many corners for comfort, and with 25 minutes left an inswinger taken by the wind deceived both defenders and Stewart, leaving Steele with the simplest of headers from two yards out to equalise. Minutes later we were lucky to survive as our defence was split by an attack down the left and a low cross found Steele on his own in front of goal without even Stewart for company. Somehow he contrived to get the ball tangled between his legs, and after an ungainly scramble the chance was wasted.
Could we ride our luck to the end of the game? O'Driscoll made some tactical substitutions, Cummings replacing Cooke, Maher for Cooper and Ainsworth for Fletcher, none of which seemed to work out well. Broadhurst was already doing a passable impression of a man running through porridge, and adding the understandably rusty looking Maher to the equation didn't help the solidity of the defence. Then Ainsworth contrived to pull a muscle after his first serious action, leaving us down to 10 men. The amount of time taken to treat him led to the referee adding 5 minutes of stoppage time, although only one was required for Orient to score a deserved winner when Cummings unwisely attempted to play Steele offside, leaving the striker clear on goal and able to slot the ball calmly past the stranded Stewart.
At the moment the side looks to be sadly lacking in what it takes to compete in this division. The defence will improve if Gowling, Young and Cummings are able to return fully fit, which in turn will enable Cooper or Purches to be used to bolster a lightweight midfield. Until then we will continue to be a soft touch for most teams.
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AFCB: Stewart, Purches, Broadhurst, Howe, Cooper, Cooke, Foley, Hollands, Fletcher, Best, Hayter
Subs: Moss, Ainsworth (for Fletcher 80), Coutts, Cummings (for Cooke, 76), Maher (for Cooper, 76)
Richie Barker, Leytonstone