Chesterfield are the '˜best side Orient have played' but Allen challenges players to cut out costly errors

Chesterfield are the best side that Justin Edinburgh's Leyton Orient have come up against this season.
Chesterfield manager Martin Allen makes a point to his team: Picture by Steve Flynn/AHPIX.com, Football: Vanarama National League match Barrow -V- Chesterfield at Holker Street, Barrow, Cumbria, England copyright picture Howard Roe 07973 739229Chesterfield manager Martin Allen makes a point to his team: Picture by Steve Flynn/AHPIX.com, Football: Vanarama National League match Barrow -V- Chesterfield at Holker Street, Barrow, Cumbria, England copyright picture Howard Roe 07973 739229
Chesterfield manager Martin Allen makes a point to his team: Picture by Steve Flynn/AHPIX.com, Football: Vanarama National League match Barrow -V- Chesterfield at Holker Street, Barrow, Cumbria, England copyright picture Howard Roe 07973 739229

Martin Allen says that was the view Edinburgh expressed in their post-game chat on Saturday evening, following Orient’s 1-0 win at the Proact.

And he’s not the only manager to say it, according to Allen.

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“We did play well, I can’t deny,” said Allen, after a fifth straight defeat by a single goal.

“Some players were below their best but most of that performance, I sat down with Justin Edinburgh and he said you’re the best team we’ve played.

“Quite a few managers have said that to me in the privacy of my office.”

Since the defeat, Allen has watched the game back twice and then addressed it with his squad.

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It wasn’t, he says, a pleasant meeting for the players, who didn’t impress him with their defensive display in the final stages of the defeat.

“We had an early start this morning.

“The staff, we all watched the game at home yesterday morning and came in today with our notes and watched it again this morning at 7am.

“We had good time to prepare ourselves for when the players came in and sat down and had a nice, quiet chat with the players, well it wasn’t quiet and it wasn’t a nice chat, about the bits we could have done better.

“We had more than enough chances to have won that game, we played very, very well. The last 18 minutes we were poor.

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“Our marking on the long free-kick into our box on the halfway line was shocking and if we hadn’t practiced that and done that type of defending in training, then you’d have to hold your hands up as a coach and say it’s down to me.

“But when you do those sorts of things in training, you expect your centre-half to come and be dominant and win those headers.

“For the cross that came in three people went for the same cross, the ball bounced out to the one player that was on his own and as we know he’s volleyed it into the top corner with his left foot.

“It was a great finish from their point of view but from our point of view it’s poor, poor defending.”

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The key now for the Spireites is to cut out the errors that have been costing them points.

And Allen has put the ball firmly in the players’ court.

“Going out and eradicating errors at key points,” he said.

“That’s very very frustrating.

“We have to keep working on it.

“You can only keep changing the team so many times, there’s only so many times you can go out and practice it in training, until the players go out there and do it.”