The 36-year-old explains one of the things O’s must change and improve on in order to have success in the 2018/19 campaign

East London Advertiser: Leyton Orient winger Jobi McAnuff dribbles past Boreham Wood opponent Kane Smith (pic: Simon O'Connor).Leyton Orient winger Jobi McAnuff dribbles past Boreham Wood opponent Kane Smith (pic: Simon O'Connor). (Image: Simon O'Connor Photography)

Jobi McAnuff is confident Leyton Orient’s mentality will be better next season after ending the 2017/18 campaign in 13th place.

The O’s 3-1 win at Gateshead on Saturday ensured they ended up as the ‘best’ side in the bottom half of the National League table.

It is nothing to celebrate, but Orient do now have a foundation to work with heading into the next campaign and McAnuff is certain they’ll improve.

The experienced winger has been one of O’s best performers since rejoining last summer and has already told his team-mates what is expected of them going forward at Brisbane Road.

“For me excuse time is over now and that is whether you are a young lad or a senior player,” said McAnuff, who wore the captain’s armband for most of the season.

“We have all had a look at it and being Orient in this league means we are a scalp for everyone. It showed against Maidenhead United (1-0 loss) in our last game at Brisbane Road this season.

“Maidenhead did well and massive credit to them for how well they have done since coming up. They could have come to us and thought their job was over, but they were at it and it meant something to them.

“We have to have that mentality next year whether we are going away to Barrow, Solihull Moors, Maidenhead or wherever because we are in this league just like everyone else.

“If we can have that mentality, I feel we have shown over the last 10 games we have the quality and enough about us to win games regularly and it is just all about the mentality and making sure we don’t lose games like Maidenhead and give cheap points away.”

Given Orient went 15 games in the division without winning, the fact they finished 12 points clear of the bottom four and on 60 points shows the impact Justin Edinburgh has had in E10.

But as McAnuff alluded to, O’s have no divine right to win games in the National League, which has been demonstrated throughout this campaign, and the current head coach has recognised this.

There has been the odd below-par result under Edinburgh, the 1-0 defeats at home to Torquay United and Maidenhead spring to mind, but generally he has done a very good job.

He has been able to put building blocks in place for next season and now it is important Orient take advantage of this and as McAnuff said – mentality is key.