Orient preview

All things being equal and the weather gods permitting, the Glovers might be able to play a football match tomorrow, their first game of 2010. It's still a tad early to be talking about 6-pointers, nevertheless tomorrow evening's opponents Leyton Orient are currently propping up the rest of L1 in the fourth relegation spot and are only 4 points behind us as I type - a win at the Matchroom Stadium would be worth it's weight in gold, particularly as it now looks pretty certain that Stockport and Wycombe are doomed, leaving only 2 relegation places for the rest of us to worry about.

It will be interesting to see Skivo's team selection tomorrow night. It's fantastic to welcome Shaun MacDonald back to the club after he re-signed on loan for the rest of the season, and presumably he'll resume his partnership with JP Kalala in central midfield. I don't mind admitting that I didn't give us a snowball's chance in hell of securing MacDonald's services for the rest of the season, so huge credit to Skivo in getting him back, particularly as a club currently in a play-off place - so either Charlton or Leeds then - were said to want to sign him. Fair play, we must be doing something right if we can compete with the likes of those two clubs for class players on loan. On the debit side we will definitely be without both Sam Williams and Terrell Forbes who both sit out the game following a one-match ban. As usual there's no news from the club regarding injuries or niggles to anyone else.

The bookies make the O's 11/8 favourites for tomorrow's game, the draw is priced at 23/10 and the Yeovil win at 19/10. My fiver's going on the draw. It's been so long since I last had a bet on a Yeovil game I had to look up the running total: -£4.50p. Grrr.

MacDonald's willingness to return to Huish Park contrasts sharply with the attitude shown by another of our former loanees who we could have been facing tomorrow night had he not buggered off elsewhere. I'm talking about Andros Townsend in case it's not obvious. The Spurs left winger has been on loan at the Orient since the start of the season and as you might expect given how well he did for us last season has proved a big hit for the Eastenders this time around as well. His loan ran out after Christmas and he returned to White Hart Lane amidst much protestations of his regard for the O's, saying he wanted to impress Harry Redknapp and try for a place in the Spurs 1st team squad, otherwise he'd have liked nothing better than to stay at Orient and help them away from the relegation zone blah blah etc etc.... So it came as something of a surprise when after a whole day back in the Spurs fold impressing Uncle 'Arry he then signed for the MK Dons on loan for the rest of the season. Classy.

Away from the Glovers but staying with League One and it was interesting to see Norwich avenge their 7-1 opening day defeat at home to Colchester with a 5-0 away win in the return fixture on Saturday. There's a good blog on the BBC site by Paul Fletcher which is well worth reading regarding the events of the day. Norwich are rightly given plenty of praise for the way they've turned their season round and with 5 L1 games won in a row there's plenty of time left in the season yet for them to force their way into the automatic promotion places. So why am I banging on about them? Mainly because the Glovers came within a minute of taking all 3 points off them not so long ago in a pulsating match at Huish Park, the last time there was anything like a setback in a league game for the Canaries. And it occured to me that if we can come as close as that to upsetting the odds against one of the best sides in the division then - touch wood - we ought to be okay ourselves at the end of the season.

Muffwatch: After a relatively quiet Christmas it's all kicking off again amongst our friends on the South Coast. A week after verbally agreeing a contract to the end of the season with popular management team of Ian Hutchison and Andy Mason, new chairman George Rolls has done an about-turn and sacked the aforementioned pair. The news has gone down like a lead balloon with the Muff fanbase who are now revolting. Well, they've always been revolting, but now they're really revolting, with talk of boycotts, demonstrations and other alternatives to going along to support their team in the air. Judging by past revolts this one will last just as long as it takes for Rolls to appoint a new manager with halfway decent credentials whereupon the Muff fanbase will then start talking about league football in 3 years time and waving at us while they pass us by. There's nothing as fickle as a Muffer.