Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football team from east London, currently playing in League One of the Football League. The team is known by its fans as Orient or simply The O's.
Leyton Orient's home stadium, Brisbane Road, is situated in Leyton, in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is officially known as the Matchroom Stadium after chairman Barry Hearn's sports promotion company. Barry Hearn became chairman in 1995 after the club was famously put on sale for five pounds by the then-chairman, Tony Wood OBE, after his coffee-growing business in Rwanda was destroyed by that country's civil war. The period of the club's near-closure was covered by the television documentary Orient: Club for a Fiver blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814188/ (made by Open Media for _Channel Four). The documentary is commonly but incorrectly known as Yours for a Fiver.
Historic rivals included neighbours Leyton F.C., and the now disbanded/merged clubs Leytonstone F.C., Walthamstow Avenue F.C. and Wanderers F.C.; however the Leyton F.C. rivalry dissolved decades ago due to Leyton F.C. still being in the non-league pyramid. The O's geographically closest professional club rival is West Ham United. However, this derby rarely takes place as the clubs have spent most of their history in different divisions. Orients biggest rivals at the moment are Southend United who they spent many years together in League 2 as local rivals and Milwall FC who come from across London
Leyton Orient have spent one single season in the top-flight of English football, in 1962-63. Though the O's were immediately relegated, they had three memorable victories within the space of twelve days against rivals West Ham, eventual champions Everton, and Manchester United. In August 1974, they were Manchester United's first opposition in the latter's only post-war Second Division campaign. In 1978, Orient reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first and only time in their history, under the management of Jimmy Bloomfield. Between October 1993 and September 1995, Orient did not win a single away game in the league. This terrible run of form saw them finish bottom of Division Two in 1994-95.
The club's current manager is Martin Ling, who took over from Paul Brush in October 2003. Notable former managers include Billy Holmes, Alec Stock, Johnny Carey, Jimmy Bloomfield, George Petchey, Frank Clark, Pat Holland and Tommy Taylor. Famous fans include Bob Mills, Julian Lloyd Webber and (according to newspaper reports) his brother Andrew Lloyd Webber.
