Club captain offers backing to under-fire head coach and admits the O’s squad need to step up and show some mettle
David Mooney feels Leyton Orient’s players are letting Steve Davis down following their latest poor result in the National League.
The O’s lost 2-0 on Tuesday night at home to Gateshead, which led to several supporters calling for the head coach to leave.
Mooney defended the former Crewe Alexandra boss and conceded he and the rest of the team are letting Davis and everyone associated with the club down.
He said: “I went to see the manager before I spoke to the press and I had a great chat and everyone is fully behind him.
“If the 4,000 who were here against Gateshead could come to the training ground then they’d see how hard he works.
“He works so hard and is probably the nicest man I’ve ever met, but maybe he’s too nice and we need to shake a few up.
“Sometimes home truths are the best truths and now it is time for everyone to go home and look in the mirror and tell themselves it hasn’t been good enough and ask how we change it because we are letting him down, letting Ross down and everyone.
“We are letting the owners down and Martin Ling and Martin’s the one who brought us all here and we’re letting him down.
“All of us want to do well for Steve Davis and to get him back into the league, but we’re not going to do it playing like that.”
Everyone can agree Orient’s injury problems have played a part in their recent run of two points out of a possible 27 in the National League.
Josh Coulson and George Elokobi have been massive misses while various other fitness issues have hurt O’s.
Matt Harrold has been absent with a calf problem and Jobi McAnuff (groin), James Dayton (hamstring), Alex Lawless (groin) and Joe Widdowson (hamstring) have all missed matches over the last two months.
Charlie Lee, meanwhile, is unlikely to play again this season after suffering anterior cruciate ligament damage to his knee in August.
Mooney knows he has not delivered in the absence of so many senior players, but called on others in the squad to step up as well.
He added: “The injuries have killed us and we’ve lost three massive players (Lee, Coulson and Elokobi) and Matt’s come in and done alright when he’s been involved, but he’s had injuries.
“Does Matt give us a different option? Yes, but we need him on the pitch. We don’t need him in the treatment room.
“We need Josh Koroma on the pitch. Is he doing enough? We need Henry (Ochieng), so where are they? We need them all to step up to the plate.
“We need Jobi back firing, we need ‘Dayts’ firing and ‘Macca’ (Bonne) firing and need our defenders to be strong, so it’s the same stuff we keep on repeating.
“I need to be better than I have been, but to be fair I thought against Gateshead I played one or two nice passes through, but in front of goal I’m struggling.
“I’ve had these blips in my career, but I know how to get out of it and I’m honest enough to admit when I’m not doing great.
“I do think in general I am doing all right, but the proof is in the goals and the goals haven’t come at the minute, so maybe it is time for me to try and helps others and that might help me, so that’s my stance on it.
“We’ll have another chat and then on Thursday we’ll put a plan together to try and beat Wrexham this weekend.”
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