23-year-old discusses fan on the pitch, time wasting and impressing in training

Leyton Orient forward Ollie Palmer criticised the pitch invader that halted play at Brisbane Road on Saturday during the match against Wycombe Wanderers.

After Jay Simpson had levelled the scores, following Matt Bloomfield’s first half opener, the momentum was with the home side.

It seemed like Ian Hendon’s team could go on and pick up all three points against the Chairboys, but a pitch invader stopped proceeding in the 83rd minute.

He was eventually taken off the pitch, but Orient could produce a final opportunity after that moment and they seemed to suffer because of the delay.

“I needed a breather to be honest,” joked Palmer when asked about the incident. “It is never nice to see and we were trying to build pressure and force the second goal.

“When a fan comes onto the pitch, it gives Wycombe the chance to settle and I don’t want to sound horrible, but I don’t appreciate it at all to be honest.”

A feature of Saturday’s match was also the time wasting of the visitors, but it didn’t surprise the Orient players.

Palmer revealed Hendon had warned the O’s to expect various types of gamesmanship during the Brisbane Road battle.

He added: “We were aware that they would be time wasting like that before kick-off. The gaffer briefed us on that. He goes into quite a lot of detail throughout the week.

“We knew we had to try and control the tempo of the game. I think we did that for most of the match, but they definitely tried to come away from home and break up as much of the game as possible.

“They wanted to waste time, sit on the floor, let the ball go out of play and wait for the next ball to come. I went up for a header and the guy was lying around on the floor for 10 minutes.

“I don’t know why so I tried to pick him up. Some teams do it that way and it is effective for them, but we like to try and play football with a fast tempo.”

Orient will hope their football can ensure they get back to winning ways on Saturday at Northampton Town.

Palmer could be set for his first start in the league this season and he is keen to prove his worth in training this week.

“I am just focused on Northampton now, not anything else,” added the former Mansfield Town forward.

“I have got a weeks training to try and impress the gaffer and get into that starting team and kick on with the boys and get back to winning ways. I think that is important.”