Boxing Day Football at Leyton Orient

Posted on by Stephen Edwards

London, England

It is possible to love more than one football team, but I did not realize that until 2015. Leyton Orient graciously hosted my students on a behind-the-scenes tour of their football club. From May 2015, Leyton Orient has become my second-favorite club, so when I was looking for a place to take my family for Boxing Day, there was no doubt where we were going as soon as I saw that Leyton Orient was hosting a home game on December 26th. Chelsea had a home game the same day, but there was no way I could swing Premier League Boxing Day tickets for all eight of us. Considering the outcome of that game, we made the right choice.

Adrienne captured me with one of the signs outside Brisbane Road. I originally purchased this jacket on my first trip to Leyton Orient in 2015. Back then, the club had just been demoted to League 2. Today felt very different as the O’s made it into the League 1 playoffs at the end of the season.

There was one wrinkle to attending the game: we were staying in an Airbnb close to Heathrow, which is in the west of London. Brisbane Road, the home ground of Leyton Orient, is located in a residential area of East London. Typically, this would not be an issue, as Leyton tube station is a 10-minute walk from the stadium. However, the tubes and the buses in London do not run on December 25-26. The good news is we had a car. The wrinkle was finding somewhere to park.

We arrived at the stadium in time for warmups before the game. Lower league football lets you get closer to the action, as we were only a few rows back from the pitch. League 1 is the third division of the English Football Pyramid, but the quality is evident in the warmups. Every single one of these guys is better than 99% of people who have ever kicked a soccer ball.

We ended up parking in the car park attached to an Asda supermarket. There was no cost to park, but our license tag was scanned as soon as we entered. Unfortunately, it meant we would have to leave early from the game, so we did not get a ticket, as surveillance cameras are everywhere in the United Kingdom.

One of the strange differences in the type of “English” we speak is that the little kids on the pitch (instead of the field) are called mascots. Soccer/Football is the one sport where you will see players walking hand in hand with kids onto the pitch. Hooliganism is less likely to happen with children on the field.

It was great to see Leyton Orient play in person, finally, and they ended up winning 3-0 against Crawley Town. Our seats were only three rows from the field, and it was a great introduction to live professional football for Diana, as everyone else had been with me to other games through the years.

Our location was great for seeing corner kicks into the box. In the English game, a large number of scoring chances come from dead-ball plays such as corners and free kicks.

I hated leaving in the 70th minute, but with Leyton Orient up 3-0, I figured it was more important to avoid a fine or being towed without transportation. Watching a game on Boxing Day is a great English Tradition, and I hope to see other games in the future.

It was delightful to go to the game. While I had other opportunities to see a game on this trip, I wanted the experience to be special. One long-term travel goal I would like to achieve is the quest for the 92, which would require multiple trips to England and Wales.

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