The 49-year-old discussed the importance of O’s remaining ‘in the moment’ and focusing on what they do, not their rivals
Justin Edinburgh insists consistent performances will get Leyton Orient where they want to be at the end of the season.
As February draws to a close, the battle for the National League title race is really starting to hot up.
Wrexham are at the summit as things stand, but if Solihull Moor win their game in hand, they’ll replace them.
O’s, meanwhile, have only played 33 times - in comparison to the Dragons’ 35 - and know if they triumph in their two matches, they will return to top spot.
It shows the league table is slightly disjointed right now, but for Edinburgh the key is focusing on the task at hand and not worrying about the others in the mix.
He said: “We need to just look at what happens next. I know people will say ‘you’ve missed a chance’ but it’s irrelevant what other teams do because we can’t affect that.
“We need to stay in the moment and concentrate and remain as calm as we can. It’s easy to say that, but it’s about trying to create that type of environment from Monday to Friday.
“It’s about preparing and covering all corners, but it will be about which team hold their nerve and we have to find a level of consistency in our performances to give us a chance to do that.”
During the first half of the season there was no doubt Orient had the best consistency of any side in the division.
It is why they were first from November 17 all the way until the middle of February, but in recent months they have lost their way.
Crucial players picking up injuries hasn’t helped, but this is all in the past now and the future is the most important thing.
O’s as a club and fanbase need to look forward and ignore the ‘missed opportunities’ and do everything they can to help the players achieve promotion.
This includes not berating mistakes when they occur because realistically how in any shape or form does that help?
By all means criticise players after the match whilst amongst friends or on the phone, but don’t tweet them and what is the point of shouting at them during a game?!
Now is not the time for such displays of open displeasure and I understand plenty will disagree with me, but if you want to help Orient go up, blindly get behind the team for the remaining games this season.
You may be called a ‘happy-clappy’ but when O’s kick their last ball in anger this season, at least you will know you tried your best to help them over the line.
For Edinburgh, it is all about focusing on what Orient do. He continued: “There is a huge amount of football to be played and normally there would be a runaway leader at the minute.
“I am sure there will be some chopping and changing and we will see more bizarre results, but we need to come away from what is happening on the outside and deal with what we can deal with.
“First of all that is our performance because if we don’t reach the standards we are used to we will not get the results and we could maybe find ourselves relying on other teams and we don’t want to get to that stage.”
The onus falls on the players to produce the displays to get O’s moving up the table again, but the fans have a part to play too and if everyone supports each other, I believe it will make a difference.
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