Video: Bizarre scenes as Gillingham players fume at Leyton Orient celebrating promotion amid power-cut

There were bizarre scenes at Priestfeld as Gillingham players fume at Leyton Orient celebrating promotion amid stoppage for a power-cut.

Leyton Orient was promoted from League Two despite a 2-0 loss and going down to 10-men at Gillingham.

Bradford City’s 1-0 loss to Swindon meant that the O’s will be returning to League One after eight years.

Orient saw Omar Beckles sent off for denying a goal-scoring chance. Alex MacDonald scored from the resulting Gills free-kick to give them the lead.

Cheye Alexander’s penalty grabbed the host’s second of the night after Idris Mizouni’s handball following a MacDonald’s free-kick.

With 12 minutes to go, the game was stopped by a failure of the floodlights. However, when play resumed with Orient already knowing that they were going up after learning the outcome at Swindon.

Orient are seven points ahead of Northampton, but more importantly they are 13 points ahead of Bradford who was the only team that could mathematically prevent them from making it into the top three.

The victory of Gillingham also prevented them from relegation, as both sides played out the remaining time.

Leyton Orient found out they’d been promoted in darkness, with their game against Gillingham halted before resuming but heard other results had gone their way.

The players and staff wasted no time to start celebrations with Gillingham players unhappy as they wanted to get the game restarted, the rest of the game saw no attack, threat and just passing to each other.

Watch videos below..... 

The lights are out and the ‘Scally Scally pay the bill” chants are out! 😂 #gills pic.twitter.com/6CA7nLkM4P

— Matt Phipps (@MJPhippsy) April 18, 2023

Leyton Orient found out they’d been promoted whilst their game against Gillingham was still going on, after hearing other results had gone their way. The players and staff wasted no time to start celebrations…

The Gillingham players were fuming… 🤣pic.twitter.com/chF4qUMHTq

— Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) April 19, 2023

#Gills watch on as the Orient players celebrate the season. pic.twitter.com/LiCXgGVCWd

— Matt Phipps (@MJPhippsy) April 18, 2023

Incredible scenes here as @leytonorientfc have decided that they don’t want to play any more as the pub’s open!” For celebrations. Crazy scenes. #Gills pic.twitter.com/AMYTHMCUtS

— Matt Phipps (@MJPhippsy) April 18, 2023

 Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens:

“Leyton Orient never make things easy, and even the lights got involved tonight! Whoever was messing around with that generator in Gillingham wasn’t going to help us out.

“We only became aware of the Swindon score when our fans started celebrating. I’m so proud of the players and I’m proud of the supporters.

“The club deserves this – a few months ago we were 20th in the league and looking over our shoulders. Now we’ve got the opportunity to flex our muscles against some real massive clubs.

“I thought at times tonight we were unbelievable. Obviously the sending off changed a lot, but even when it was 11 versus 10 we put on a performance. It was just a shame that the referee wanted to be the highlight of the show.

“We’ll take our medicine tonight, but we’ll do all we can to get enough points to win the title. I’m sure the supporters will make a big day of it at home on Saturday.”

🗣 "I'm buzzing for the supporters - hopefully Saturday we'll make a special day of it."

Let's hear from the gaffer, who reflected on the game - and more importantly, the O's promotion to @SkyBetLeagueOne.#LOFC #OneOrient pic.twitter.com/VHTQFAhzFC

— (P) Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) April 19, 2023