If you are currently sleeping at all, that is.....

Go back to early December last year and supporters of both clubs would have been astonished to learn that five months later they would be sleepless with excitement and anxiety about a Wembley final.

Leyton Orient had just lost at home to Huddersfield and had fallen to 21st place. It was their ninth defeat in their first sixteen games. Meanwhile, we lost that infamous match with Crawley on 3rd December and were twelfth. Many felt it surely couldn't get any worse, but it did. After 0-0 draws with Lincoln and Mansfield we dropped to 14th.

Our subsequent rise from the ashes has been well documented - 61 points from the ensuing 27 games; 19 wins and just 4 defeats; 12 clean sheets making a club record total of 20 in all.

Orient's turnaround was even more remarkable. After the loss to Huddersfield they embarked on a run of nine wins and two draws with a goal difference of 26-4. They lost at home to Stockport on February 1st but bounced back with three more wins and were in 6th place when they went up to Wrexham and beat them 2-1. Amazingly, they then contrived to lose five consecutive games including our late smash and grab at Brisbane Road and it seemed like they had blown it when they dropped back to 9th. However, they won eight of their final ten games (including all the last six) and they guaranteed themselves a top six place on the final day by beating Huddersfield 4-1 away while Reading faltered at home to Barnsley.

Both Charlton and Leyton thoroughly deserved to be in the play-offs but do they both deserve to be in the final? After our battling performances against Wycombe there can be no doubt that we certainly do, but what about Leyton? We asked a number of random people in Stockport for their opinions and the general consensus was negative. Charlie Kelman's absurdly offside goal in the first leg and the Stockport shot that hit the post in the final minute of the second leg left the home crowd at Edgeley Park feeling there was no justice. Nevertheless, we imagine many Charlton fans would prefer to be playing Leyton at Wembley rather than the Stockport side we have endured two battles with in the regular season.

There are plenty of reasons for believing that we will win this game. We have already beaten them twice this season. They have four players in their squad (Pratley, Jaiyesimi, Clare and Edmonds-Green) who were deemed surplus to requirements at our club. We should have about ten thousand more supporters in the stadium. Nevertheless, they have finished the season strongly and they do have the League One top scorer (Kelman) and dangerous players in Donley and Galbraith. Furthermore, it is a one-off game and anything can happen. Scoring the first goal in the right net (hello Naby) would be helpful as, on the 23 occasions we have scored first this season, we have won 22 times. Of the 19 times we have conceded first we have only won three, albeit one of those was at Leyton.

CAFC Chair Gavin Carter said in our recent Q&A that the dramatic late win at Brisbane Road was his best moment of the season so far. He may well have revised that opinion in light of the Wycombe game at The Valley but there can be little doubt that lifting the trophy on Sunday would top everything. If we can be "the best version of ourselves" we should be strong enough to see it through and to find ourselves waking up on August 9th looking forward to an encounter with Southampton, Leicester or, dare I say it, Millwall.

Enjoy the day