O’s captain Clarke calls for stability

Brisbane Road skipper discusses relegation, final day defeat and Fabio Liverani

Leyton Orient captain Nathan Clarke believes stability will be key this summer after they suffered relegation following events on the final day of the League One campaign on Sunday.

The Brisbane Road club were beating Swindon Town 2-0 before conceding twice in the final 30 minutes to draw and therefore finish in the bottom four.

Colchester’s success against Preston ensured they would have gone down to League One regardless of what happened at the County Ground.

O’s supporters called for manager Fabio Liverani to leave after their relegation was confirmed, but Orient’s skipper doesn’t believe that needs to be the case.

“We definitely need stability,” said Clarke. “You look at the teams that do well throughout the leagues, they always have a set way of playing, and a set routine and the man at the top always seems to be lasting a lot longer.

“I think the manager is the right person to take the club forward next season. He is enthusiastic about being here and is desperate to push the players and improve us so yes why not?”

Orient’s skipper accepted their overall performance at the County Ground wasn’t good enough after letting the Robins come back from two-goals down despite having 10 men for 70 minutes of the match.

He pinpointed the way Swindon play as being the most problematic issue on Sunday and admitted O’s struggled to deal with them.

“Of course this is a poor performance to look at them having 10 men and it being a weakened team, but I thought we started really well,” added Clarke.

“We had some really good chances early on, with the penalty as well. We felt pretty much in control at that stage.

“We knew, whether they made changes or not, that they are a good passing side, they have a good manager and one that makes them pass whether they are down to 10 men or not and especially second half we just couldn’t get to grips with that.”

Liverani, unsurprisingly, made changes to his starting line up at the weekend bringing Luke O’Neill and Josh Wright back into the team with Scott Cuthbert and Shaun Batt dropping to the substitute bench.

The constant changes by the Italian have been criticised by most quarters, but Clarke wouldn’t confirm if it affected the players or not.

He added: “Obviously the manager works with us day in and day out. He looks at us through training and sees how certain people are performing and picks the team accordingly.

“If it is the same team or not, he has opted to change it around and you saw again on Sunday as we had new faces in again.

“At the end of the day it is down to the manager to make changes or not, he picks the side on how training has gone and how we feel we can affect the other team.”

Unfortunately Liverani’s team selection has contributed towards the Brisbane Road club suffering their first relegation since 1995, but it is only one of a number of reasons behind O’s demise this season.