Jamie Donley proved to be the hero once again for Leyton Orient as he dealt Wrexham a blow in their promotion bid on Tuesday evening.
Excelling for the east London club since making the move across the capital, the Tottenham youngster netted his sixth goal of the campaign with another fabulous strike for Richie Wellens’ team.
Initially trailing 1-0 following Oliver Rathbone’s goal before Charlie Kelman restored parity on 30 minutes, Donley grabbed the winner five minutes after the restart. Taking up a position 18 yards out on a Leyton Orient corner, Jay Rodriguez’s headed clearance fell perfectly to him just inside the box and he did the rest with a fizzing volley.
It was incredible technique from the 20-year-old as he guided it through a number of bodies to find the bottom corner of Mark Howard’s goal. It was that good the goalkeeper didn’t even move.
A goal that extended Orient’s excellent record and also strengthened their play-off push as they are now three points clear of Charlton Athletic in seventh, it was also a goal that stopped Wrexham from closing to within two points of Wycombe Wanderers in the final automatic promotion berth.
As he has done countless times already this season, Wellens hailed Donley’s technique for his sixth goal of a wonderful campaign.
The second [goal] is a sensational strike as well,” he said in his post-match interview. “It’s a difficult technique and a lot of players try and slash at that, it goes over the bar or they’ll shank it into the ground.
“Technically he’s a superb footballer and that’s a couple of real special strikes in the last few weeks and long may it continue.”
Donley and fellow Tottenham loanee Josh Keeley will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they take on fellow play-off contenders Bolton Wanderers at the Toughsheet Community Stadium. Orient are then on the road three days later when they travel to St Andrew’s to face League One leaders Birmingham City.
The game in the second city will see a Tottenham reunion take place as Birmingham are now managed by Chris Davies, who was Ange Postecoglou’s senior assistant coach at Spurs last campaign.
Amid previous interest from Swansea City in making the highly-rated coach their manager, Davies departed Tottenham in June to take up the role at Birmingham.
He has already made a huge impression with his new club, who have an 11-point cushion over Wrexham in the race for an automatic promotion spot.
Not only that, Birmingham secured a place in the Vertu Trophy final on Tuesday evening and they also gave Premier League side Newcastle United a real scare in the FA Cup at the beginning of the month.
After a really torrid time at St Andrew’s in recent years, Birmingham appear to be back on the up with Davies playing a major role in their rise.
The 39-year-old knows all about the quality Donley possesses and he will be determined to nullify the Spurs youngster and stop him from delivering another promotion blow after doing so at Wrexham.
Teams are finding it very hard to stop Donley from influencing proceedings, though, in what has been a very successful loan spell for all parties concerned. Shining at Wrexham on Tuesday, Donley will be determined to do it against the best in League One after hopefully doing the same at Bolton this weekend.
