The Football Pink

Cambridge arrived at Brisbane Road unbeaten in ten away games in all competitions. They'd last lost on the road at Barnet last season, on their way to automatic promotion. Orient had lost their last two. In front of 8,639, the home side ended both runs.

For half an hour it was Cambridge's game. Zak Bradshaw's side-footed cross was just too heavy for Sullay Kaikai, who'd have had a tap-in, Louis Appéré and Cathal Heffernan both headed over, and on 28 minutes Nathan Baxter tipped over Bradshaw's deflected drive after Ben Knight had laid it off.

First effort on target, first goal

Orient had offered almost nothing. Then, on 32 minutes, Alex Gilbert swung in a corner from the right, and Rarmani Edmonds-Green, playing for the first time this season, met it first time. The ball hit the far post and went in. It was the first effort on target of the game, and the ninth time in ten league games that Cambridge had conceded first.

Armando Dobra should have doubled it before the break, but, unmarked six yards out, he couldn't steer his header from Ollie O'Neill's cross on target.

Woodwork, then the floodgates

Neil Harris sent on Shayne Lavery at half-time, and two minutes in Cambridge should have been level. Baxter couldn't hold Bradshaw's low cross, and Appéré pounced, but his close-range effort looped onto the post and dropped into the keeper's arms.

Orient punished them at once. On 50 minutes Edmonds-Green latched on to Somto Boniface's deep cross and knocked it back across goal for Jaze Kabia, unmarked inside the six-yard box, to tap in.

Aaron Connolly had already curled one a yard wide when, on 62 minutes, with Cambridge pushing men forward, he picked the ball up just inside his own half. Kell Watts backed off and kept backing off. Connolly drove into the box, made the angle and picked out Jake Eastwood's bottom corner.

That was the end of it, and both benches were emptied. Cambridge had 16 shots and 34 touches in the Orient box, twice as many as the home side, but only two of their shots were on target. Orient had three on target, and scored with all of them.

"Today, we got punished"

Richie Wellens saved his praise for the man of the match, Rarmani Edmonds-Green, back after an ACL injury suffered in October 2025.

It's been a long, hard road back for him. He's been frustrated the last three or four weeks where he needs to play to get properly fit. We toyed with the idea of sending him on loan to a National League side for a month, because friendlies at this time of year are very difficult to arrange.

Richie Wellens, Leyton Orient head coach

So he's had to sit and wait a little bit. I trust him: he makes decisions, he's strong aerially. I didn't think he would score a goal, but the whole group are pleased for him.

Richie Wellens, Leyton Orient head coach

Harris was far less forgiving of his own side.

When you come into games like today and don't do the basics – which comes from a real lack of experience and naivety – then you get punished. Today, we got punished. We turned the ball over too cheaply at times, but ultimately it's two set-play goals that have taken the game away from us.

Neil Harris, Cambridge United head coach

He was clear it wasn't about Orient's quality. "Orient weren't better than us in the sense of patterns or rotations or ability to break us down," he told the Cambridge Independent. "We shot ourselves in the foot time and time again." He pointed to "the same individuals making the same errors" as in last week's 3-2 defeat at Plymouth, and said bluntly that "the players have let themselves down".