After the short and unsuccessful period under Paul Went, Orient understandably reverted to experience. Following a long playing career, almost entirely up north,Yorkshireman Ken Knighton (once sent off for Sheffield Wednesday at Brisbane Road) was manager of the Sunderland team that won promotion to the top division in 1979-80, with Frank Clark as his assistant.
The pair were sacked the following spring but were reunited in east London the following autumn. Knighton, abrasive and confrontational, joined first, in October, for a couple of welcome draws in local derbies with QPR and Charlton with equally welcome crowds of just over 8,000.
By the end of November good wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle and the arrival of Clark as assistant manager meant things were looking up. Stan Bowles, not the sort of player for disciplinarian Knighton, soon left for Brentford, but going into February the O’s were as high as 13th and in the last 16 of the FA Cup with good wins over Charlton and Huddersfield.
From there, however, it all fell apart, starting with a 1-0 defeat at home to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fifth round replay. Knighton, who had fined 15 different players a total of £1,000 at that point, had a furious row at half-time with skipper Tommy Taylor, who had thrown the ball at a linesman. He was told to find another club and train elsewhere. ‘But that is in no way the sole reason for my decision’ said the manager, mysteriously.
Taylor eventually returned after half a dozen matches but the team were on a terrible run of one win in 18 games that sent them plummeting back to the bottom of the table and relegation. The last two home games were each watched by barely 2,000 fans and the average attendance of 4,419 was the lowest since the very first season in the Football League 76 years earlier.
Back in the Third Division after a dozen years, crowds plunged even lower as the O’s failed to make an impression and, worse, were in some danger of dropping straight through to Division Four. Some shocking results included three home defeats by 5-1 in the space of two months, and for the home game with Wrexham in March the crowd was 1,969.
But Keith Houchen had been an excellent signing, Peter Kitchen returned from Hong Kong and they each scored in the crucial final day victory over Sheffield United by 4-1 that avoided a second successive relegation. For once it had been the defence that was the weakness, conceding 88 goals. Knighton paid the price after two underwhelming seasons and, disillusioned, never worked in the Football League again.
