“We can beat Leyton Orient!” Borough manager Tom delighted with Trophy draw

“We can beat Leyton Orient!”

Haringey Borough may ply their trade three levels below their FA Trophy First Round opponents Leyton Orient, but don’t think for one moment that they are just delighted to get a plum draw. Manager Tom Loizou is quite clear that he feels that their tie against the ‘O’s’ is eminently winnable.

“That’s not me being disrespectful,” he explained, ‘and I promise you that I haven’t taken leave of my senses! I’m quite aware that we won’t be the favourites. But if we can put out our strongest side then we have players easily good enough to play at their level, and they’ll know that they’ve been in a match.”

Tom and a number of members of his staff have strong Orient connections- Tom managed their reserve and youth teams earlier in his career, as well as having a short spell as caretaker manager- so this is an emotional draw for them. But he knew it was coming. “I told my chairman, Aki (Achillea) that we’d get Orient in the next round, and I said the same to my players before we beat Thame United on Saturday. But although I’m focused on winning the match, I’ve enormous affection for the club, and the supporters there. They should be in the Football League, and to see them in their current predicament is heartbreaking. That said, it’s my job to make matters worse for them, and I’m determined to do it.”

Asked whether this was the biggest game in the club’s history, he agreed that it was- for now. “Our progress over the last few years has been incredible, but we’re not done yet. I think this club can go an awful lot further that Bostik North, and a match like this will help enormously. Any money we make will go straight back into the infrastructure- we’d like to add to our youth setup for the benefit of the children in the area, we’d like extra changing rooms...and I’m very lucky in that the chairman allows me to put every penny we make straight back into the club. Actually, I’m very lucky in having such a good chairman, full stop; he trusts me entirely and leaves me to get on with the job, as well as being the club’s chief cheerleader on the terraces on a Saturday afternoon. I’m delighted for him today- he rang me after the draw was made and he was overjoyed.”

Describing Orient as sleeping giants, and stating that his own club had the potential to be genuine competition to the ‘O’s’ in years to come, Tom was also quite clear that this match was important because it would “put the club and it’s players in the shop window. It will show us off in the best possible way to the community we serve, and perhaps help us get more of them down here regularly if they like what they see- and I promise that they will like what they see. This is a club going places!”

The match is scheduled for Saturday 16th December. Look out for ticket details over the next week or so.