Crawley Town boss: Leyton Orient's spirit left with Slade
By Crawley News | Posted: December 24/12/14
WHEN Crawley Town visit Leyton Orient on Boxing Day, manager John Gregory is expecting a very different side to the one that narrowly missed out on promotion to the Championship last season – insisting the east London side’s “spirit” left with former boss Russell Slade.
Slade resigned as Orient boss in late September shortly after the club was bought by Italian Francesco Becchetti and the side now languish second to bottom of League One.
Crawley have a good record against Leyton Orient, having won all four of the previous league ties between the sides, but Gregory admits it is hard to know what to expect from the Brisbane Road-based club this season.
“When Barry Hearne sold the club, I think Russell Slade, the manager at the time, certainly knew things were going to be differently behind the scene,” Gregory said. “And I don’t think Russell felt it was the right place for him at the time and he got a move to Cardiff City and things haven’t really improved since Russell left and they made the change.
“[Orient’s current sporting director] Mauro Milanese I know very well for Queens Park Rangers, he was a player of mine and he took over as the coach and within three or four games he was gone. It’s been very turbulent times at Orient for everybody.
“I know one or two of the senior players haven’t been very happy. But when you step over that white line on a match day, you tend not to get too involved with all the stuff off the field and they still have some very good players in the squad. They have players who can score goals and players who play with their heart on their sleeve; so it isn’t an easy place to go to, regardless of their recent results.
“But I think if you can get ahead against them, then I think a little bit of their spirit has gone, gone with Russell. The backroom staff have changed and it’s all a little bit different, but nevertheless I’d still have a few of their players in our team.”
Read more:
http://www.crawleynews.co.uk/Crawley-To ... z3Ms33TY8D Follow us: @crawley_news on Twitter | crawleynews on Facebook