Leyton Orient have been playing lights-out football for much of the League Two season, so it was fitting their promotion was sealed in pitch-darkness at Gillingham.
Manager Richie Wellens immediately set his sights on clinching the title, as the O’s return to League One after an eight-year absence was confirmed, despite their 2-0 defeat being interrupted late on by floodlight failure.
The delay meant news of sixth-placed Bradford’s 1-0 defeat by Swindon had filtered through by the time power was restored, and the match restarted with Orient’s promotion guaranteed.
“I apologise to our supporters, who were right: Leyton Orient never make it easy!” Wellens said at full-time. “Even the lights tried to fail us, so whoever’s messing about with that power generator didn’t make it easy for us!”
Orient played 76 minutes with 10 men after Omar Beckles’s red card, but were done a favour by Swindon, who Wellens led to the League Two title on points-per-game after Covid curtailed the 2019-20 season.
“I’m pleased it was Swindon,” Wellens added. “Covid cruelly took the chance for us to win the league properly. These occasions don’t happen very often, so let’s make these next three weeks memorable and try to get the title.”
Victory for Gillingham secured their survival and the final minutes were effectively a training-ground keep-ball.
“Usually when you’re off for 15 minutes you’d give a warm-up to the players,” Wellens said. “But me and Neil [Harris] spoke, [I said] we’re happy you’ve won and we don’t want any injuries, we’ve got four big games coming up.
“It was unlikely we’d get anything from the game, so we managed the last 10 minutes.”
