Clohessy: We need back-to-back wins

Sean Clohessy says Leyton Orient’s next two matches have become ‘massive’ following their loss at Hartlepool.

Ian Hendon’s side welcome York to Brisbane Road on Saturday, before a long trip to Plymouth on Tuesday, having slipped to a 3-1 defeat in front of the live Sky Sports TV cameras on Sunday.

O’s have now taken just five points from their last six League Two matches and are clinging on to a play-off place by virtue of goal difference.

“A lot of teams would have made us favourites and we’ve come away with a 3-1 loss,” said Clohessy.

“We’ve got to regroup and the boys have to shoulder the blame. There’s nothing the manager could have done any different.

“We prepared the best, we were given downtime, we trained hard and trained on everything like we normally do, but it’s just the boys’ fault.

“Every Saturday is a big game, but Saturday and Tuesday become massive games and we need to get back on a winning roll and get back-to-back wins to creep up, because anyone can beat each other in this league.

“We need to start getting that confidence back and grinding out results if that’s what we have to do. We can’t keep doing this because teams are going to get away from us and we’re going to have too big a gap and will have to go on a hell of a run to get into the automatic positions.”

Orient travelled to Victoria Park without Sammy Moore, following the birth of his daughter in the week, and Dean Cox, who has been ruled out for six months with a cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in training.

But Bradley Pritchard returned from suspension and put them in front after only 13 minutes as he converted a pass from Lloyd James to finish off a good move with a low, left-footed shot.

Clohessy added: “It’s something we do in training quite a lot. We get a lot of play down the right, passing it around.

“‘Pritch’ with his runs and Lloydy’s passing, being able to put things round the corner, is something we’re good at and we’ve got chances like that earlier in the season.

“It was a well-worked goal, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. We’ve got 1-0 ahead and we should be seeing out the game.

“Obviously you want the second goal to try and control things, but once you go 1-0 ahead, that’s the main part of the game. That’s what we were complaining about ealier in the season when we weren’t getting ahead and were conceding.”

Orient’s lead in the north east lasted just seven minutes, though, as Alan Dunne was penalised for handling a cross and Kudus Oyenuga beat Charlie Grainger from the penalty spot.

The match remained in the balance until 15 minutes from time when Jake Gray’s shot deflected off Dunne to put Pools ahead and Gray added a third late on to make sure of the points.

Clohessy added: “Obviously the penalty changes things, but even then you’re still 1-1 and we’ve had half-chances in the second half.

“Then we conceded the second one and obviously we’re always chasing the game and that’s the problem. You’re obviously open to counter-attacks and they’ve got the third and they deserved the win in the end.

“We’ve had a great following, it’s a long way to come and it’s just truly not acceptable.”