WE'LL need to be in a positive mood for tomorrow’s clash at Bradford City as our opponents are the talk of the football world thanks to a sensational FA Cup win at Stamford Bridge.

Bradford didn’t have to contend with the Chelsea substitutes’ bench that we did in 2005: Lampard, Joe Cole and Hernan Crespo! Let’s hope Bradford go into the game with their heads still somewhere in the King’s Road.

Against Orient last week new arrival Chris Porter improved our attacking shape. He couldn’t chase everything down in the way he normally does, but he led the line superbly. Far better than Freddie Sears who preferred to drop deep for the ball, or Rhys Healey, whose bravery gets him battered.

Kaspars Gorkss’ goal from a corner was a classic. He was double marked as he attacked David Fox’s swinging cross to the near corner of the six-yard box, but there was nothing legitimate his markers could do to prevent him from scoring.

Kaspars’ connection was perfect and the ball flew into the wide open space beyond goalkeeper Gary Woods. The delivery was so good that it was an impossible goal to prevent without fouling Kaspars and/or lining up bodies on the goal line.

If the goal looked familiar it was because it was a carbon copy of a goal by James Collins for West Ham in the pre-season game in 2013. On that occasion Joe Cole took the corner and Collins got the header, ahead of Clinton Morrison I think, who could do nothing but spectate.

I also loved the ways Kaspars got to grips with Orient substitute Plasmati, a player introduced so that Orient could adopt a long ball approach. Plasmati bettered him in the first couple of aerial challenges, but by then Kaspars had worked out how to play him, and from then on had him in his pocket. It was a master class.

For a while there has been nothing more certain than the fact that Tom Lapslie would make the progression to League football without missing a beat. And so it proved. He has an old head on young shoulders, and a brain which anticipates the first five yards in his head. It was a very satisfactory debut from the first minute to the last.

Elliot Hewitt’s sending off was strange. As he was moving into a challenge, Romain Vincelot’s movement and body language suggested he was going to launch himself.

Elliot Hewitt bought the dummy and reacted appropriately, protecting himself as any player would, with the result that Vincelot caught a real packet, leaving the match officials with little option but to dismiss Elliot.

You may have noticed the ‘protest’ story last week. It was reported that some fans were unhappy with the club’s youth policy and with the buying and selling of players.

A couple of days later two of the stars of the Orient victory were young players emerging from Florence Park, Sam Szmodics and Tom Lapslie, new signing Chris Porter gave the side a whole new dimension, and the goal that sealed the game was scored by recent signing Gorkss, from a corner by other recent signing David Fox. It closed the sad ‘protest’ episode better than words can.

It’s the time of year when young players are told if the club wants to keep them. Saddest event for me this week was the release of former youth team captain Billy Roast. On and off the pitch you could see that Billy was the natural leader amongst his age group. Releasing him must have been the hardest decision.