Defender discusses promotion aim, sticking together and good team morale under Ian Hendon

East London Advertiser: Leyton Orient manager Ian Hendon looks on at Colchester (pic: Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO)Leyton Orient manager Ian Hendon looks on at Colchester (pic: Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO) (Image: 25/07/2015 Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO c/o 27 Plaiters Way, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3LR, contact@tgsphoto.co.uk)

Sean Clohessy believes the strong mentality and spirit inside the Leyton Orient dressing room could be key to earning success this season.

The O’s defender captained Ian Hendon’s side in wins at Colchester United on Saturday and at Woking on Tuesday after Nathan Clarke revealed on Friday he would be departing for family reasons.

It was a pleasing start for all involved at Brisbane Road, especially with the new campaign set to begin shortly.

Clohessy is one of nine new signings made by Hendon this summer and more are expected before Barnet visit on August 8.

But the 28-year-old believes the current squad have the mental strength to challenge for automatic promotion in League Two this season.

“When I signed here the first thing I thought about was promotion and that is what’s in my mind now,” said Clohessy.

“We want to get promoted. I played in this league for three years with Southend and we never achieved it, despite being one of the favourites.

“It is a tough league. You have your ups and downs and the main part of doing well is when you are not having good times – when you are down and not getting results – you need to stick together and dig deeper to nick those results.

“When you are not winning games you need to try and nick draws because they all add up at the end of the day.

“Those little half points you can get, go a big way. It is a long campaign and there are a lot of teams that seem like they are going for it, but we obviously want to get promoted and win this league and we’re confident in what we can do.”

Clohessy, after captaining the O’s twice recently, could find himself as the new full-time skipper at Brisbane Road.

Clarke completed a move to Bradford City on Tuesday to move back closer to his family home and it means 15 players from last season’s squad have now gone this summer.

Hendon has had to oversee a complete overhaul of the team, but Clohessy believes it could turn out to be a positive with a new togetherness back inside the changing room again.

“If you look at the team they had last year they should have never gone down,” he added.

“When I played against Orient with Colchester I thought they could go on and win the league, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen.

“That tells you a lot about how strong a changing room needs to be to win the league.”

Instead of getting promoted to the Championship last year, O’s suffered relegation to League Two.

But perhaps in the long run that could prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Clohessy added: “We have got a good chance this season. I think you need to have a good changing room if you are going to do well and we’ve definitely got a strong one here.”

Orient didn’t get the success they expected last year, but this season it could be different.