Leyton Orient keeper discusses relegation battle and crucial matches coming up
After extending his loan from Premier League Burnley until the end of the season, Alex Cisak is confident of helping Leyton Orient beat relegation this season.
The 25-year-old initially joined on a month’s loan back in February after an injury to Adam Legzdins and has made seven appearances since, keeping two clean sheets in the process.
He is certain Fabio Liverani’s team will move away from the bottom four in League One and has insisted all the Orient players believe they’ll avoid relegation.
“We have 12 games left and they are all cup finals now,” said Cisak.
“You have got to have faith in your team when you are battling relegation and you can’t get too negative if you lose.
“Everyone needs to be confident that you won’t go down and everyone here thinks we are going to stay up and we need to keep playing well and get the wins we need.”
O’s have two matches at Brisbane Road in the next week and Cisak believes now is the time to make their home a fortress again.
Fellow strugglers Yeovil visit on Saturday, before play-off hopefuls Barnsley arrive on Tuesday.
Orient have won just four games on home soil all season and that record needs to improve.
Cisak added: “Why not make Brisbane Road a fortress? There is no reason why it shouldn’t be.
“Our home form hasn’t been good and that is why we have struggled this campaign because normally if you do well at home you tend to be up there. I guess now is the right time to get our form at home sorted with two games coming up this week.
“If we can get a result on Saturday against Yeovil it will get the ball rolling and we can go into Tuesday’s game versus Barnsley with even more confidence.”
O’s face another team in the bottom four, Crawley, a week on Saturday and Cisak believes they have an excellent chance of moving away from the relegation zone over the next month.
He is confident they can beat Yeovil this weekend and start getting the results their performances deserve after losing to Peterborough United (1-0) and Bristol City (3-1) recently.
“The next seven or eight matches are all winnable so if we can get five or six wins that will help us,” added Cisak.
“It is 12 cup finals now and Yeovil will be thinking the same. Hopefully the fans are on our side and we need the team performing to do that.”
Cisak has been in a relegation scrap before – during his time with Oldham Athletic in 2012/13.
Latics were in the bottom four on March 9 2013, but by April 20 had secured their league status.
Cisak added: “At Oldham we were in a similar situation. We had about 12 games left and we were in a slightly worst position.
“But we got the wins we needed over sides around us and ended up being safe with three games to go.
“Hopefully before the last game of the season we can secure our league status and look ahead to next season.”
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