“I think we’ll have a few days of partying once the season’s done,” says Leyton Orient goalkeeper Sam Sargeant with a grin that stretches the Leyton High Road as he and long-term teammate Dan Happe speak to i over Zoom.
It’s Thursday 20 April, 36 hours or so since the O’s secured promotion to League Two despite slipping to a 2-0 defeat to Gillingham in the dark – after a floodlight malfunction – and Sargeant and Happe are suitably pleased.
They will be even happier a few days later when Orient clinch the League Two title courtesy of a 2-0 win against Crewe Alexandra at Brisbane Road. Sargeant, Happe and the rest of Richie Wellens’ squad spent Saturday bouncing up and down: on the pitch alongside their euphoric fans; inside the dressing room, belting out country hit Wagon Wheel and spraying bottles of Peroni liberally as they went; and from E10 to wherever the night took them. It was not always this way; these are moments to be cherished.
Over the past decade, Orient supporters have seen it all. Mention the word Rotherham United to them and they will groan at the memory of the 2013-14 League One play-off final that got away. Mention Francesco Becchetti’s name, the Italian owner who presided over two relegations and almost wiped the club from existence, and foam may begin to froth at the corners of their mouths. Mention the late Justin Edinburgh, of whom a stand is now named, and a mournful look will take shape at the beloved manager who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest just weeks after guiding Orient back into the EFL four years ago.
Sargeant, 25, and Happe, 24, have seen it all too, the academy graduates who have been there throughout the turbulence. Just six years ago, they were two of only nine first-team players – a loose term given all nine were teenagers – on the club’s books as it teetered on the edge of extinction. Nigel Travis, the local boy done good, and Texan businessmen Kent Teague stepped in to save it and set in process the long road to recovery. Orient are back in the third tier of English football after eight years away.
“I think League One is where the club should be. If you look at nine years ago we were one kick away from becoming a Championship side and the club’s gone through so much [since],” says Sargeant.
“Obviously me and Haps have been here for years, since that play-off final day, and I think I speak on behalf of both of us when I say we’ve seen everything a player could see in football. We’ve had highs, heart-breaking lows. We’ve seen the club at rock bottom and to get back to where the club should be is obviously a massive achievement.”
Happe, a towering 6ft 6ins centre-back, adds: “I’ve been at the club since I was 14 so anything [negative] that happens I feel like it takes a burden on me as well.
“I feel like a fan myself, but going through relegation and what happened with the owners and Justin, it was just crazy… I can’t put into words what we’ve actually been through. But to come out of the other side and get promoted from the National League into League Two and then into League One is everything we could have asked for.”
The word “togetherness” continually pops up as Sargeant and Happe take turns to answer questions on the club’s stunning season. In terms of league position, Orient finished the 2021-22 campaign closer to the bottom than the top in 13th. They were by no means the bookies’ favourites to go up this year either, let alone as champions.
That they achieved promotion with four games to spare and secured first place with three remaining, is a testament to their quality and consistency throughout. They won eight of their first nine games and hovered around first place ever since before making it their own.
“If you interviewed every single player they would say that this is the best group that they’ve been with,” says Happe. “The boys are absolutely class. The togetherness in the squad and with the gaffer, everything just comes hand in hand to be successful in this team and that’s why we are where we are now.”
It’s a significant achievement for Wellens too, who on Sunday was crowned the League Two Manager of the Season for his efforts. It must have been particularly sweet for him to have finished comfortably ahead of the Class of 92-backed Salford City given they sacked him in March 2021 after less than five months in charge.
“Did I enjoy working there? No,” Wellens told i in an interview in April last year, in which he admitted to having a strained relationship with co-owner Gary Neville. “I have certain standards, certain disciplines I think need to be in place in a football club, things any manager will tell you they need. I didn’t think they had them at Salford.”
Salford may yet join Orient in League One – they are sixth in the table with two games remaining – but Wellens’ success in east London makes their decision to dismiss him so promptly seem incredibly hasty. If Wellens was underestimated at his previous club, he certainly isn’t now.
“He’s a top manager,” says Sargeant. “He came in when we were struggling last season. We were in a position that we shouldn’t have been in and I remember him saying when he came in ‘Something’s not right here, we’ve got the players and the quality [to be doing better]’.
“We knew we had the quality, I think we just needed someone to bring that confidence back and to set a style of play that worked for us that we were all capable of doing and the gaffer did that. He’s great around the lads.”
There will come a point where Travis and Teague, Wellens and his coaching team, Sargeant, Happe and the rest of the squad and the supporters who have followed the club to the brink and back, will turn their attentions to next season. But all of that can wait for now. “I think we all deserve to let our hair down,” says Sargeant as a summer of celebration awaits.
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