O’s French defender discusses fans, relegation and giving everything
Mathieu Baudry was so nearly Leyton Orient’s hero on Saturday, but Bob Harris struck to give Sheffield United an equaliser and make everything look doom and gloom again for the E10 club.
The Frenchman admits it would be “unbelievable” if they could pull off a great escape and thinks the fans don’t deserve to see their team in this situation.
Following Saturday’s draw with the Blades, O’s need to go to Swindon Town this weekend and win. They also need Notts County, Crawley and Colchester to all fail to pick up three points.
It seems unlikely, but the 27-year-old hopes Orient can stay up and learn from this experience in the summer.
“I don’t think the fans deserve to see us relegated,” said Baudry.
“We have had a difficult season and – I can’t lie a – lot of stuff has happened and it has been hard, but if we could keep the club up we could rebuild and start next season learning from our mistakes.
“That would be amazing for the club so this is what we need to do.”
Former Bournemouth defender Baudry has always had something to play for come the end of the season since signing for O’s.
But this is the first time relegation has threatened the Brisbane Road club since he signed in 2012.
He believes they need to show even more character now than they did last year when they pushed for automatic promotion before losing the play-off final to Rotherham at Wembley.
“I have never had an end of season where we are just chilling with nothing to play for,” added Baudry.
“My first season we were in the hunt for the play-offs until the last game and last year we had the final at Wembley, but now we are down the other end.
“I think mentally it is harder to be where we are this season.
“When you play at the top and you are winning it is not hard, but when you’re in trouble you need to show you have got character and got balls and next week we are going to see if we have got that.”
If Orient do not stay up this weekend, Baudry will experience relegation for the second time in his playing career.
The first occurred when he was trying to establish himself in the Troyes team in 2008/09 when they were playing in Ligue 2, but the Frenchman still has hope for O’s.
“I’m trying to give my best and everything I have and we will see what happens at the end of the season,” added Baudry.
“I have suffered relegation a little bit when I was in my first season. I was not a professional, but I started playing a few games for the first team and I could see how horrible it was for everyone attached to the club.
“But we are not down yet and we will work next week and make sure we do our part and win the game at Swindon.”
Even if Orient do beat Swindon, it might will be enough. They could be playing League Two football for the first time since 2005/06 next season and not many saw that coming.
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