O’s midfielder calls on team mates to be positive, forget about relegation and focus on winning
Leyton Orient’s Lloyd James has called on his team mates to win at Swindon Town on Sunday to ensure they are not kicking themselves at the full time whistle.
The former Southampton midfielder concedes if results elsewhere go O’s way, yet they fail to win at the County Ground and suffer relegation, the players will be gutted.
A broken leg has kept the 27-year-old out for most of the season, but now he is back and doing his best to help the cause of the club.
He didn’t want to discuss the Brisbane Road club suffering relegation and is therefore focused on doing all he can to keep Orient in League One.
“If we look after ourselves what will be will be,” said James.
“We have got to make sure we get the result on Saturday because if we don’t, and other results do go our way, we will be absolutely kicking ourselves so we will concentrate on ourselves and get the result.
“I had it with Southampton in the 2008/09 season when we got relegated from the Championship.
“It is not a very nice feeling. I was a young kid then, but I don’t really want to talk about getting relegated.
“I want to be positive and go into the game with a positive attitude. I am sure we will get the result and we will see where it takes us on Sunday.”
If O’s can get the result, and Crawley, Notts County and Colchester all fail to win, they will remain in League One for another season.
James hopes that is the case and they can push on next year. He believes Orient need to forget about recent matches they have lost and be positive about Sunday.
He added: “We have got one game left and we have got three points to play for.
“If we get them three points and results go our way it will be a season we can forget about and push on next year.
“If we stay up it will be looked at as a good season if you know what I mean. Forget about the other games we have just got to take the positives and go into Sunday and go from there.”
A subject for debate has been whether the Robins will rest some of their first team players with a play-off semi-final match coming up on May 7.
Boss Fabio Liverani and defender Mathieu Baudry have refused to suggest it will be a positive for the Brisbane Road club.
And James echoed their sentiments, adding: “It is up to Swindon what they do, they have their own ambitions and we have got ours.
“We know for a fact that once we cross the white line it won’t matter what team they pick. We know we are going to do a job and hopefully we can do it.”
A positive mindset is the best attitude for Orient to adopt because unless they believe, they won’t have a chance of beating the odds and staying up.
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