Jonny_Stokes
Dan Agyei Appreciator
#2 - Richard Cadette
When we take an Orient retrospective from the early to late 1980s you can't help but be overcome with a sense of complete and utter misery. While the nation was tearing itself apart over the miner'sstrike the dear old Os were busy getting themselves relegated to Division Four for the first time in our 104-year history. In the days of yuppies, Wham and highlights in your hair, Brisbane Road had an aura more akin to the lyrics of Joy Division and The Smiths.
Amongst our small squad was a new acquisition from Wembley FC: A young striker by the name of Richard Cadette, who had been brought in at cut price by Frank Clark to replace the legendary Peter Kitchen, released in the summer after his second spell at the Os.
Cadette was a short, stocky and nippy forward but head no real pedigree. None the less, he soon notched his first League goal versus York City in front of the South Terrace. His close range header from Shaun Brooks' corner put us in front, but the Keith Walwyn and Keith Houchen-inspired Minstermen eventually ran out 3-1 victors. Over the course of the season the diminutive frontman had lengthy spells out injured but it didn't stop him grabbing a brace(including a fantastic 25-yard piledriver) against Doncaster Rovers over the Christmas period, and he followed that up witha dramatic winner in a 2-1 shock win over WBA two weeks later.
More injuries and relegation followed in 1985, but we thought that Richard had enough about him to do well in our first campaign in Division Four. All we had to do was get him to sign a new contract during the summer and all would be hunkydory. Alas, we hadn't bargained on a certain Barry Silkman sticking his oar in and getting Cadette to follow him down the A13 to Southend United to join up with Bobby Moore and Frank Lampard down at Roots Hall. And to top it off, they only paid a measly 15 grand for him (this was pre-Bosman...)
Sure enough we took on the Mudmen in our second league game the following season, and on a Friday night too. I remember coming home from holiday and checking the paper for the result. Southend United 5 Leyton Orient 1. Scorers: Cadette 4 goals... I'd read enough. I think the phrase 'typical Leyton Orient' springs instantly to mind here, but it was just the start.
Four months later the Os did grab some revenge with a 3-0 gubbing of the Shrimpers and this was made all the sweeter when Silkman's suicidal backpass let in Shinners for number three that December afternoon. However, the following season Cadette was on target yet again during a crunch play-off match during a heavy rainstorm at Roots Hall in March 1987.
Howard and Wells combined to **** up in our own area and Cadette cashed in from close range to silence many of the Os fans who had given him some fearful stick that night during our 1-2 defeat. Southend eventually won promotion that season, but Cadette had hit a phenomenal 56 goals in his 104 starts and found himself transferred to Sheffield United for £130,000 in the summer of 1987.
If Orient had thought they had seen the last of their ex-striker then we were very much mistaken. A year later he turned up at Griffin Park in the colours of Brentford and sure enough helped himself to another goal at Brisbane Road during a 4-1 pre-season hammering that resulted in some severe stick for Frank Clark (was there ever a home home game from 1984-1989 that didn't result in severe stick for Frankie?)
In March 1991 this pain in the arse returned to Brisbane Road for the last time to complete his haunting of the Os. To top it off, he sprinted through a Eustance-inspired (insipid?) offside trap to notch an equaliser. If that wasn't bad enough just before the end Cadette shrugged off three challenges to set up Dean Holdsworth for the winner in a 2-1 triumph which meant it had been eight games since we'd beaten the those tossers from West London, and it would be the infamous 4-2 game the following December before the hoodoo was laid to rest. Thank god we'd seen the last of him.
After theat encounter Richard Cadette enjoyed some success north of the border at Falkirk (if you tap in Dundee United v Falkirk on Youtube you can see him grabbing a hat trick at Tannadice Park) and eventually ended up at the asylum otherwise known as Millwall for a three-season stint up to then end of 1997 before moving north once more to join the soon-to-be-doomed Clydebank for a handful of games.
Funnily enough, Mr Cadette tried his hand at management too: he had a spell at Tooting and Mitcham from 2003-2006. After almost twenty five years there is still a feeling of 'what might have been' regarding Richard Cadette in relation to his Os career and it still stiks in the throat that it was bleedin' Southend United that got the best of him from right under our noses.
The time lord.
Article from, and copyright of The Leyton Orientear, Issue 193.
When we take an Orient retrospective from the early to late 1980s you can't help but be overcome with a sense of complete and utter misery. While the nation was tearing itself apart over the miner'sstrike the dear old Os were busy getting themselves relegated to Division Four for the first time in our 104-year history. In the days of yuppies, Wham and highlights in your hair, Brisbane Road had an aura more akin to the lyrics of Joy Division and The Smiths.
Amongst our small squad was a new acquisition from Wembley FC: A young striker by the name of Richard Cadette, who had been brought in at cut price by Frank Clark to replace the legendary Peter Kitchen, released in the summer after his second spell at the Os.
Cadette was a short, stocky and nippy forward but head no real pedigree. None the less, he soon notched his first League goal versus York City in front of the South Terrace. His close range header from Shaun Brooks' corner put us in front, but the Keith Walwyn and Keith Houchen-inspired Minstermen eventually ran out 3-1 victors. Over the course of the season the diminutive frontman had lengthy spells out injured but it didn't stop him grabbing a brace(including a fantastic 25-yard piledriver) against Doncaster Rovers over the Christmas period, and he followed that up witha dramatic winner in a 2-1 shock win over WBA two weeks later.
More injuries and relegation followed in 1985, but we thought that Richard had enough about him to do well in our first campaign in Division Four. All we had to do was get him to sign a new contract during the summer and all would be hunkydory. Alas, we hadn't bargained on a certain Barry Silkman sticking his oar in and getting Cadette to follow him down the A13 to Southend United to join up with Bobby Moore and Frank Lampard down at Roots Hall. And to top it off, they only paid a measly 15 grand for him (this was pre-Bosman...)
Sure enough we took on the Mudmen in our second league game the following season, and on a Friday night too. I remember coming home from holiday and checking the paper for the result. Southend United 5 Leyton Orient 1. Scorers: Cadette 4 goals... I'd read enough. I think the phrase 'typical Leyton Orient' springs instantly to mind here, but it was just the start.
Four months later the Os did grab some revenge with a 3-0 gubbing of the Shrimpers and this was made all the sweeter when Silkman's suicidal backpass let in Shinners for number three that December afternoon. However, the following season Cadette was on target yet again during a crunch play-off match during a heavy rainstorm at Roots Hall in March 1987.
Howard and Wells combined to **** up in our own area and Cadette cashed in from close range to silence many of the Os fans who had given him some fearful stick that night during our 1-2 defeat. Southend eventually won promotion that season, but Cadette had hit a phenomenal 56 goals in his 104 starts and found himself transferred to Sheffield United for £130,000 in the summer of 1987.
If Orient had thought they had seen the last of their ex-striker then we were very much mistaken. A year later he turned up at Griffin Park in the colours of Brentford and sure enough helped himself to another goal at Brisbane Road during a 4-1 pre-season hammering that resulted in some severe stick for Frank Clark (was there ever a home home game from 1984-1989 that didn't result in severe stick for Frankie?)
In March 1991 this pain in the arse returned to Brisbane Road for the last time to complete his haunting of the Os. To top it off, he sprinted through a Eustance-inspired (insipid?) offside trap to notch an equaliser. If that wasn't bad enough just before the end Cadette shrugged off three challenges to set up Dean Holdsworth for the winner in a 2-1 triumph which meant it had been eight games since we'd beaten the those tossers from West London, and it would be the infamous 4-2 game the following December before the hoodoo was laid to rest. Thank god we'd seen the last of him.
After theat encounter Richard Cadette enjoyed some success north of the border at Falkirk (if you tap in Dundee United v Falkirk on Youtube you can see him grabbing a hat trick at Tannadice Park) and eventually ended up at the asylum otherwise known as Millwall for a three-season stint up to then end of 1997 before moving north once more to join the soon-to-be-doomed Clydebank for a handful of games.
Funnily enough, Mr Cadette tried his hand at management too: he had a spell at Tooting and Mitcham from 2003-2006. After almost twenty five years there is still a feeling of 'what might have been' regarding Richard Cadette in relation to his Os career and it still stiks in the throat that it was bleedin' Southend United that got the best of him from right under our noses.
The time lord.
Article from, and copyright of The Leyton Orientear, Issue 193.
