Former Oldham Athletic skipper concedes he and the rest of his team-mates haven’t been good enough lately
Liam Kelly has called on his Leyton Orient team-mates to turn their season around starting tonight at home to Plymouth Argyle.
The 26-year-old has been one of the few bright spots for O’s so far having scored three times since his move from Oldham Athletic in the summer.
But Kelly admitted his own display on Saturday at Notts County wasn’t good enough as Orient lost 3-1, which resulted in Andy Hessenthaler being dismissed.
It doesn’t get much easier for the east Londoners either with the League Two leaders visiting this evening.
Kelly said: “We should be looking above the play-offs and it’s disappointing when you lose two games in a row. We have got to do something about it and as a team we’ve got to be better than this.
“The players are disappointed and we weren’t good enough at Notts County, I wasn’t good enough.
“We have to do something about it on Tuesday night and build from that because we need to turn our season around.
“It is a positive thing to have the Plymouth game come so quick. It would have been a long week if we had to wait until Saturday for the next match.
“We have to put it right and can’t keep continuing our season like this. It is not good enough. We are going to have to do something to turn it around and Tuesday night is the perfect opportunity.”
Orient’s problems in defence have been a topical subject since the new league campaign started.
But Kelly believes it is down to the whole team to improve their form and wants to score more goals himself too.
He added: “I don’t know what it is. I couldn’t tell you. I just think we have been switching off for our goals. We have conceded a lot from set pieces but that wasn’t the case against Notts County.
“It is about us players getting organised and not conceding sloppy goals, but I still think we can be more dangerous going forward. We can score more goals and I must count myself as well.”
Saturday’s loss at Meadow Lane was Orient’s biggest of the campaign with all of their previous defeats being by the odd goal.
Newport County and Yeovil Town have both earned 1-0 wins at Brisbane Road while Mansfield Town triumphed 2-1 in E10 last month.
“Football is always fine margins and unfortunately this time we’ve come out worst. It has been fine margins for the majority of this season,” said Kelly.
“If you look at our home games, teams have nicked a goal against us late in games. It hurts us and Tuesday night is a good opportunity to put that right.”
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