Up before the crack of dawn, the White Army meandered its way down the motorway arteries of England towards the Gaughan Group Stadium, the home of Leyton Orient.

It was my first ever visit to what was formerly known as Brisbane Road and before the match, we were welcomed into the Leyton Orient Supporters’ Club, run entirely by fans. Proudly displaying their many CAMRA awards, real ale and home-made cheese and onion barm cakes were the order of the day as we chatted to Orient fans about their recent descent to non-league football and their road to recovery as National League 2019 and League Two champions 2023. We could not help thinking how close we came to going out of the Football League, just how close we came to going out of business.

In their programme Orient paid their heartfelt respects to Bolton fan Iain Purslow, as they lost one of their own fans, Derek Reynolds, earlier this season in similar circumstances. Just before kick off, former Wanderer, Darren Pratley laid a wreath in front of the massed Wanderers fans - a fine gesture, well appreciated.

Ian Evatt shuffled his pack to cover the injured Will Forrester and the missing Gethin Jones, but was still able to name a strong team. We were looking forward to a tough game but hoping to get something to keep our momentum going in the league.

What followed is still difficult to process. Call it what you want, a bad day at the office, a blip, an off day but the bottom line is we never really got going against a team who were up for it and wanted it more.

Ironically, we had the better chances, which were missed, while they cashed in on a bad defensive error. They simply ran us off the park, not giving us any time to play and most of our team were simply not at the races. We looked very ragged by the end and it made the journey home very long indeed.

But it is over now. We cannot do anything about the result, so we move on and put things right against Cheltenham. All teams will have their off days before the end of the season. Teams that grab points when they are not playing well, are the teams that get promoted.