Graham Turner’s thoughts after the 2-0 defeat to Leyton Orient
Town were looking to bounce back from last week’s disappointing away defeat against Walsall but failed to do so against Leyton Orient.
There was a bright start from the home side but after Orient grabbed the lead it was heavy going for Town. A half-time team talk saw Town flash a couple of efforts near of the O’s goal, but after Dave McAllister gave away a penalty with less than 5 minutes of the half gone it was an uphill battle for Town.
After the game Town manager Graham Turner spoke to the press to give his thoughts on the game:”I think we have hit a flat spot with three consecutive defeats which was the last thing we wanted at this stage of the season with so much at stake.
“You can feel a little bit of tension around us and sense that around the place and the fans as well.
“We paid a heavy price for that today; our defending for the first goal was poor after we didn’t set ourselves up properly.
“What then kills you is their second goal 5 minutes after half-time, you can’t go into tackles like that and David knows that. He’s apologised to the players afterwards but that doesn’t do us any good now.”
Town were still in the game at the break but with only a few minutes on the clock Dave McAllister gave away a penalty that the O’s converted to make it 2-0. It was the second week in a row that Town have conceded early after the restart and something which frustrates the Town manager:”It’s the second time in two games as we did the same at Walsall last week, it kills off the inspiration to try and start a fresh in the second half.
“We had efforts at goal, one or two trickled wide but we weren’t too convincing today.
“You need to grind out results at times; work that much harder to get results but when you concede goals like we did today it sets you back a lot.”
There were a number of changes from the side that started at Walsall last week but with another defeat it wasn’t clear whether the changes have made a difference:”The result would suggest that they haven’t worked and if you look at the changes there were no sparkling successes.
“It’s nice to have Jon Taylor back in and the game will have done him the world of good, Marvin’s had a little bit of breather and gone on for half an hour so might now be in contention to start at MK Dons, Yado had to go in for Rob Edwards and Luke Summerfield did ok in midfield.
“The result dictates what the changes did for us and a 2-0 defeat would suggest they didn’t make much of a difference.”
There were a number of boos at the final whistle from the home faithful and it is something that the Town manager does understand:”It happens anytime you lose at home but especially when you have lost three games on the trot.
“The fans stayed with us against Doncaster and recognised the unfortunate situation we were in and today I think they’ve stayed behind the team.
“They encouraged the players and there wasn’t too much of a bad reaction when the play was going on, which was pleasing.
“They are entitled to voice their opinions at the end of the match as they’ve paid good money to watch it so I’ve no qualms about that.”
The defeat was tempered somewhat by results elsewhere down the bottom on the npower League 1 going Town’s way:”It has be the positive today and teams down the bottom fighting relegation as going to lose more than they win.
“That’s why we are down there and that’s why we are fighting relegation.
“Orient beating us today won’t be a big surprise to the outside world as would have been Walsall beating us last week.
“It’s the side that can keep its nerve, work that bit harder, can maintain those energy and enthusiasm levels to go out and grind out results to get out of trouble.”
Town will now regroup and focus their attentions to the tough looking trip to MK Dons on Tuesday night, but it’s a game that the manager things his side can get a result out of:”You’ve got to look forward to going to a nice stadium like MK Dons and go and put a good performance on.
“No one else is going to help us out, we can only help ourselves.
“The players might take some lifting but by Monday’s training session they should be back up and focused on getting a result on Tuesday.
“I saw MK Dons beat Doncaster and beat them comfortably, the way they went about things was a comprehensive performance and result.
“We’ve been to some big stadium this season and got results so to be able to get their on Tuesday and play on a nice big surface I can’t see why we can’t get another result.”