Leyton Orient: Capitalising on Brighton player call proved a Russell Slade masterstroke: View | OneFootball

Dean Cox followed his old Seagulls boss to East London, with the playamker thriving as a result

“We’ve got tiny Cox, we’ve got tiny Cox, we’ve got tiny, we’ve got tiny, we’ve got tiny Cox”

If you ever took a trip to Brisbane Road between 2010 and 2017, there is every chance you heard Leyton Orient fans belting that number out from the terraces.

Not only were they shouting loud and proud about their diminutive manhoods, but also serenading their tricky little playmaker who made things tick for all of his six-and-a-half years in East London.

Dean Cox arrived at Orient with a point to prove after his release from Brighton and Hove Albion, and left the O’s as a club hero, with many a magic moment along the way.

Dean Cox fails to impress Gus Poyet at Brighton and Hove Albion

After coming up through the ranks with the Sussex side, Cox became something of a regular for the Seagulls during his early years with the club, with over 150 appearances in all competitions across six years.

While coaches of yesteryear would have said the 5ft 4in technician was too small to cut it in the professional game, he more than proved them wrong, as he went on to thrive for Brighton, who were a League One club at the time.

This wasn’t the well-equipped team that we see adorn the Premier League of today, but a side who barely had a penny to scrape together, with home games being played at the Withdean Stadium, complete with 400m running track around the pitch’s perimeter.

Having grown up in the area, Albion meant everything to Cox at the time, with the chance to play for the club he had always love being a dream come true.

With the likes of Glenn Murray and Bradley Johnson for company, Albion had some stars in the making, with Cox pulling the strings as the link between midfield and attack, but things took a turn for the worse when Gus Poyet took over the reins on the south coast.

The Uruguayan immediately wanted to put his own stamp on the side he inherited, and his plans didn’t include Cox, a player who would have given his all to play in the blue and white shirt.

Understandably, to be told you aren’t fit enough to play for your boyhood club was hard to take for the playmaker, as he elaborated in an interview with Sussex Live: "Gus Poyet made it quite clear I wasn't in his plans. That was quite soul-destroying at the time. I had given everything from the age of six. At 22/23 to be deemed not good enough, which I thought I was, was hard to take.

"I started near the start of the season and then Gus came in and then I was still playing a bit but then it got to a point where I was on the bench and then from the bench to the stands. When that happens you know the writing is on the wall.

"I remember having an honest meeting. He said that he wouldn't be renewing the contract and to look elsewhere to play. It was really hard to take at the time.

"Playing for Brighton was the dream. That was all I wanted to do. For it to be taken away was really hard. I took it quite badly. That was my dream gone. I had to refocus and look at playing elsewhere.”

Brighton and Poyet’s decision would play into Orient’s hands though, with a soon-to-be club legend linking up with a familiar face when he made the move to the capital.

Russell Slade reunion reaps rewards for Dean Cox and Leyton Orient

Russell Slade had been Albion boss during Cox’s time with the club, and gave the midfielder the chance to showcase his abilities on the biggest stage.

The former Yeovil Town boss [pictured] had overseen a miraculous recovery with the Seagulls in the 08/09 campaign, as he turned around an eight-point deficit with seven games remaining to keep them in the third tier, and effectively change the course of history for the club forever.

Cox was fundamental to those efforts, so once his time with Albion was up, it was a no-brainer for him to be reunited with his old boss at Brisbane Road, and the pair immediately carried on where they left off once they were back together.

28 goal contributions in his first campaign for the club showed that he really meant business, and had a point to prove to Brighton, whom he netted the opener against in the EFL Trophy less than two months after departing the club.

Poyet may have steered the Seagulls to promotion in that following campaign, but it also proved to be the making of Cox, who revelled in his new surroundings with an incredible 17 assists over the course of the campaign.

With his weaving runs, incredible vision, and eye for the spectacular, Orient fans were watching in awe as the mini-magician conjured something out of his hat each and every week, with the O’s seemingly on the up as a result.

The 2013/14 season would prove to be the high-point of the pair’s marriage, although it ended in bitter disappointment, with the side leading the way in League One for a lot of the campaign, before falling short in the playoff final to Rotherham United.

How different things could have been, because in the blink of an eye, Orient were battling for their Football League status, with the horrific ownership of Francesco Becchetti seeing them drop into non-league just three years after that fateful day at Wembley.

Cox was there until that final fateful season, as the situation at the club got progressively worse, despot his best efforts to try to stabilise matters on the field.

With the uncertainty surrounding the club, things got worse and worse both on and off the pitch, with the ownership releasing him from his contract after the transfer window had shut, leaving him unable to join another EFL club as a result.

After more than 250 matches for a club that had taken him under their wing, the two were parting on unceremonious terms, with the player saying at the time: "I didn't really want to leave but, circumstances being what they were, I felt like I had no choice.

"We had come to our conclusion that we were going to go our separate ways. I can't really elaborate on it for legal reasons.”

Without one of their main marksman at the club, Orient went down with a whimper, and were left battling to get back into the Football League, while Cox eventually continued life with Crawley Town.

They may have parted on bad terms, but Orient and Cox were a match made in heaven for a long spell, and Brisbane Road will never forget the good times he gave them along the way.