465: Justin Edinburgh, Tottenham Hotspur, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

By the age of 24, apart from four years away at university, I had not only lived in the same area of Lewisham my entire life but the same house. When I finally flew the nest and moved in with my now wife we found a decidedly ropey flat in Leyton and it was a culture shock on a number of levels. Perhaps the alarm bells should have been ringing when the estate agent offered us discounted rent if we were willing to do a bit of painting and cleaning. They were definitely set off when the drains flooded after two days living there thanks to the previous tenant bunging an entire bog roll down the pan as a leaving present. We only lived there a year, partly thanks to the landlord selling from beneath us, but it will always be our first home together and I will always have a soft spot for our neighbours from across the High Road: the Mighty O’s.

Our year living in Leyton coincided with a brilliant season for Orient as they finished third in League One behind a resurgent Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brentford. You could tell things were going well as the buzz around town on matchdays increased week on week despite the best efforts of the newly opened Leyton Technical to charge people silly money for a pint and one of the most enjoyable sounds out and about was the huge roar whenever the ball hit the back of the net at Brisbane Road which I can confirm could be heard up to a mile away depending on the wind direction. The O’s swept Peterborough United aside in the play-off semi-finals and set up a date at Wembley with Chuckle Brothers’ favourites Rotherham United. Orient led 2-0 at half-time but were pegged back by two Alex Revell strikes to take the game to extra time and penalties. The Millers won the shootout 4-3 but there were high hopes for the O’s going into the 2014/15 campaign. Sadly those hopes rested in the hands of the club’s new owner Francesco Becchetti.

Three seasons and twelve managers later Orient suffered their second relegation under Becchetti and found themselves playing non-league football for the first time since 1905. Having been relegated the previous week following a 3-0 loss to Crewe Alexandra the O’s loyal fans took to the pitch in the dying minutes of their 3-1 defeat to Colchester United demanding Becchetti’s resignation. The sit-in protest lasted more than an hour and led to the match being temporarily abandoned. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were to have the final say and, due to Becchetti’s failure to pay his taxes, he was forced to sell the club in June 2017. Under the stewardship of Dunkin’ Donuts chairman Nigel Travis the O’s struggled to adapt to life in the National League and by November 2017 manager Steve Davis had been given his marching orders. The club turned to Justin Edinburgh.

Edinburgh spent the majority of his playing career at Tottenham Hotspur where he was part of their 1991 FA Cup winning side in only his thirteenth appearance for the club. Having established himself in and around the first team throughout the 1990s he made nearly 250 appearances for Spurs at left back registering a solitary goal. He nearly missed out on a League Cup winner’s medal in 1999 owing to his dismissal in the final but his red card was rescinded when the powers that be decided that hitting Robbie Savage was perfectly understandable. A short spell at Portsmouth was followed by a move to Billericay Town where he served as the club’s player-manager for three years. He went on to manage Fisher Athletic to promotion to the Conference South followed by stints with Grays Athletic and the now defunct Rushden and Diamonds.

In October 2011 Edinburgh took charge at Newport County with the club facing relegation from the Conference Premier. Having secured The Exiles survival he led the club to promotion to the Football League via the play-offs in the 2012/13 season being named the division’s Manager of the Season in the process. Newport acquitted themselves well in the fourth tier and Edinburgh was snapped up by Gillingham of the third tier midway through the 2014/15 campaign. Having narrowly missed out on the play-offs in his first full season in charge Edinburgh was dismissed by the Gills after a relatively poor first half to their 2016/17 season. He was out of work for all of ten days when fellow League One side Northampton Town brought him to Sixfields. Edinburgh kept the Cobblers up but was dismissed after a poor start to the following season. A few months later the Basildon born manager found himself at Brisbane Road.

After a season of consolidation Edinburgh’s first full season with Leyton Orient saw the O’s well and truly involved in the promotion race from the get go. A fascinating campaign saw them tussle for top spot with Solihull Moors and the ‘Class of 92’ backed Salford City but, almost two years to the day that Orient fans stormed the Brisbane Road pitch, the O’s secured promotion back to League Two with a 0-0 draw at Braintree Town. Edinburgh’s men came close to securing a league and cup double when they reached the final of the FA Trophy but ultimately fell short with a 1-0 loss to AFC Fylde. Despite another disappointing day out at Wembley the buzz and belief that had filled High Road Leyton back in 2014 was back and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of supporters or a more likeable manager.

A few weeks after the FA Trophy final Justin Edinburgh went into cardiac arrest and tragically died five days later at the age of 49 leaving a widow and two children. Leyton Orient were quick to open the gates of Brisbane Road to allow fans to pay tribute to the man who had taken them back to the Football League and soon the pitch was lined with flowers, scarves and shirts. Edinburgh’s assistant Ross Embleton led the O’s into the 2019/20 season as Interim Head Coach supported by club captain Jobi McAnuff as First Team Coach and, following a brief spell under Carl Fletcher, the club finished in a more than credible seventeenth position in a Covid-shortened and emotionally charged campaign. 

Shortly after Embleton was appointed as the club’s permanent manager in January 2020 Leyton Orient announced that the West Stand at Brisbane Road would be renamed the Justin Edinburgh Stand. This official unveiling took place during the O’s home game against Edinburgh’s former employers Newport County and the home side fittingly ran out 2-1 winners. A cynic could argue that Edinburgh did little more than what he was brought in to do in returning Leyton Orient to the Football League but this would overlook the significant impact his stewardship had on repairing the relationship between the club and its fans and the belief he brought back after the demoralising Becchetti period. I might have moved a bit further away but Brisbane Road is still my local ground and I look forward to taking my boy there as soon as feasibly possible. Hopefully it’ll be to see Orient picking up three points from the Justin Edinburgh Stand.