Vincelot ‘very low’ after Wembley loss
Leyton Orient's Romain Vincelot battles for the ball with Rotherham United's Kieran Agard. The former Dagger could return to Victoria Road when the two sides meet for a pre-season friendly on July 29 (pic: Nigel French/EMPICS) - Credit: EMPICS Sport
French midfielder experiences other side of coin
Romain Vincelot had been a play-off winner at Wembley with Dagenham & Redbridge.
Now he has experienced the other side of the coin after Orient’s devastating penalty shoot-out defeat to Rotherham.
The Frenchman describes them as the “complete opposite” and said: “We gave everything to be in the play-offs.
“It’s 49 games where you give everything, but the whole season depends on that last game.
You may also want to watch:
“When it goes to penalties anything can happen. We took it to extra time and penalties and you can’t go further than that in effort.
“Penalties are a score, but they’re also a bit of a lottery. It’s very hard to take.”
Most Read
- 1 'Grenfell Tower'-type cladding still not removed from New Providence Wharf after 3 years
- 2 Cops break Covid-19 rules to have haircuts at Bethnal Green police station
- 3 Murder arrest after woman stabbed to death in Whitechapel this morning
- 4 Whitechapel murder victim named as teenager charged with killing
- 5 Covid hero who did charity walk in Bow aged 100 now has vaccine
- 6 Man sentenced after teenage boy groomed on Snapchat to sell heroin
- 7 Leyton Orient boss Embleton could rotate team for Bolton trip
- 8 Police e-fit expert retiring after 15 years at Bethnal Green
- 9 Lovely Day for Aldgate School picked to sing on Billy Ocean's new single
- 10 'It must be urgently addressed': New research into BAME Covid impact
The midfielder, who produced a composed performance over the 120 minutes, is hopeful his team-mates use the heartbreaking experience to their advantage.
And he refused to blame the two players who missed from the spot, using the motto: “We miss together.”
Vincelot added: “In football you can’t blame players who miss the penalties. They accept the responsibility when they step up.
“We’ve been a unit all season and that’s not going to change.
“It’s an experience. It’s a really harsh one, but if you take a good lesson from it, it can help you.
“Right now it’s really hard, but hopefully there will be a positive side in a few weeks. At the moment there’s none.”
Vincelot admits the fact Orient were so close will make defeat even harder to swallow.
They were in League One’s automatic promotion places for a large part of the season and led the play-off final 2-0 at half-time after goals from Moses Odubajo and Dean Cox.
They were ahead in the shoot-out too after Jamie Jones saved Rotherham’s second kick from Lee Frecklington.
But Mathieu Baudry and Chris Dagnall missed Orient’s final two efforts and O’s face a big test to come back stronger next season.
This campaign came down to a matter of “inches” according to Vincelot, who added: “We were playing well, we had more chances but it doesn’t get you the result. It comes down to inches, a bounce of the ball here and there.
“Even if you’re 1-0 or 2-0 up against them, they have a big targetman and keep throwing the ball into the area.
“Right now, I just want to swallow and have a little holiday, but it will stay in the guts.
“We need time to digest it and then we’ll go again next season. But first we have to forget about it for a bit.”