Jamaican international calls on team mates to improve form at Brisbane Road

Jobi McAnuff believes Leyton Orient need to prepare for the visit of Morecambe this weekend as if they are playing Oxford United.

The O’s defeated the high-flying Yellows 1-0 on Saturday with the 34-year-old scoring the only goal of the game at the Kassam Stadium.

It was a big boost for Kevin Nolan and his side after they had lost the week before at home to Luton Town.

Orient’s form at Brisbane Road has been a concern for some time now and Jamaican international McAnuff believes they have to improve in front of their own supporters quickly.

He called on his team-mates to treat facing the Shrimps the exact same way as they would if they were playing one of the top seven.

Morecambe are in 17th place and although they beat Wimbledon last weekend, it was their first victory in 11 matches.

“I wouldn’t say we don’t have a problem playing against teams up there in the division, but we can deal with them,” said McAnuff.

“We have a lot of games to come against sides down the other end of the table.

“The best teams pick those sides off, they don’t automatically think they are going to win just because they’re playing a club that is 19th, 20th or 21st in the table.

“You have to perform as if you are up against a team in second place. If that is our mentality, then we’ll get the results we need.”

Orient’s form on the road has been consistent since Nolan took over, but at Brisbane Road they’ve won just twice in 2016.

McAnuff insists they will learn from the reverse they suffered against Luton on March 5.

He added: “Obviously away from home the performances and results have been good.

“We just need to make sure we get our form at Brisbane Road sorted and if we do that, we will be very formidable.

“It is always a different type of game at our place and the Luton match showed that.

“They sat in, nicked a goal and it is hard to break that down, especially when they have literally got 11 people behind the ball.

“But we need to do more than we did to create the chances we need, that is something we’ll be looking at and working on.”

Orient bounced back from that loss to Luton with an excellent win at Oxford with McAnuff again playing a key role.

Now they are keen to back it up with another strong showing when Morecambe visit this weekend.

The longest undefeated run they have gone on since Nolan took over is three matches, which they’ve achieved twice.

But McAnuff pondered whether they are thinking about it too much, adding: “Maybe getting on a long unbeaten run is something we have spoken about a little bit too much.

“Perhaps we just need to go out there, get the performance and the result, and let it happen really. The good thing is that if we have lost a game since Kev has been here, we have invariably gone on to win the next week.”