Orient boss Richie Wellens backs Jamie Donley to shine on biggest stage
Jamie Donley produced a moment to savour for Leyton Orient fans in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.
Richie Wellens has tipped Leyton Orient midfielder Jamie Donley for the top after he etched his name into FA Cup folklore with a moment of magic against Manchester City on Saturday.
Tottenham loanee Donley sent Brisbane Road into pandemonium after 16 minutes of their fourth-round tie when his 40-yard lob struck the crossbar and bounced in off City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.
It subsequently went down as an Ortega own-goal but Donley will cherish the latest highlight of an impressive first loan spell away from Spurs.
The 20-year-old initial struggled after he joined O’s and played only a minute of Sky Bet League One football in November, but has started to flourish with five goals and five assists in his last nine fixtures in the division.
After Tottenham declined the chance to recall Donley in January, the academy graduate will remain at Orient for the second half of the season, but Wellens knows the left-footed playmaker may soon grace the Premier League regularly.
“Going forward Championship will be minimum for him,” Wellens acknowledged after a narrow 2-1 loss to City.
“Unless we’re in the Championship, there’s no way we get him back next year.
“The plan for Jamie was one of two things. He comes to us, develops, grows into a man and then goes back to Tottenham and maybe gets into their first team.
“If not, then he goes to the Championship, so there is a clear development plan for him going forward.
“And if he carries on with the same attitude, the same intensity, the same work ethic and mentality, then he might be playing against City week in, week out.”
Donley is not the only Tottenham loanee to star at Orient with goalkeeper Josh Keeley a firm fans’ favourite.
Keeley came up to score in O’s second-round tie against Oldham before he produced penalty shoot-out heroics versus Boreham Wood and Derby.
After Keeley produced a string of saves against Man City, Wellens hailed the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international.
Wellens added: “Josh was class and he’s been brilliant. I think 75 per cent of his performances have been clean-sheets.
“He’s got good character for a young kid and he’ll only go on and develop potentially into a top-level Premier League goalkeeper if he keeps his feet on the ground.”
Man City boss Pep Guardiola was pleased to navigate a banana-skin tie and confirmed Ruben Dias had always been set to play only the first half on his comeback from a hip issue.
“Yeah, the plan was Ruben just for 45 minutes. He come from injury and I didn’t want to bring two new players in (Abdukodir) Khusanov and Vitor (Reis) to play together at the same time,” Guardiola revealed.
“With that result, it was too much risk. I wanted one alongside experience and we went Ruben and John (Stones). John was amazing second-half as well and that was the reason why.”
