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St James' Park
Wednesday 29th July Kick-off 7;45 pm
Fifth pre-season friendly of the season and first and only at home.
Team News Steve Harper, Shola Ameobi and Ryan Taylor will return to the squad for Wednesday's friendly with Leeds United at St.James' Park.
Tickets
Admission is £10 for adults, £5 for U18s and £7.50 for OAPs and Students (£15/£7.50/£10 in premium areas). Tickets can be bought in advance and cash turnstiles will be in operation for this game - note that Level Seven areas won't be open for this fixture.
Chris Hughton "Desire"
talking to nufcTV
"It's massively important that we come out and put on a show against Leeds. Because of Saturday we need the players to show some desire and bite to bounce back from what was a dreadful result. It wasn't good enough and the players know that. We have a chance on Wednesday, in what is arguably a harder game, to show that Saturday was a blip and we'll certainly be going out to win the game."
talking to The Chronicle Chris said:
“I don’t think there is disillusionment in the camp. I don’t see that. We have made sure we stress to the players that none of us have any control over what is happening outside of the training ground.
We don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but we have to make sure we do our jobs properly and prepare in the right way for games. I can’t control who is going to still be here, but I haven’t heard anything about anyone leaving either.
It wasn’t a proud moment for any of us at Leyton Orient. It was a very painful result, but in pre-season you get highs and lows and that was very much a low for everyone involved.
We know where we went wrong and it’s up to us to put it right in front of our own support against Leeds. There can be no excuses. We don’t want to dwell on it for too long, but at the same time it is important we remember just how short we fell of the standards that are required. The players have got to have been stung by that experience. Irrespective of what people may think, there is a desire among the players to do the best they can. They have their pride and they know that, regardless of what happens in the future, they need their fitness at this stage of the season.
Sébastien Bassong will play against Leeds United. There hasn’t been anything untoward going on. He has just had a different training programme to everyone else, but he is training with the rest of the group now and will be involved on Wednesday night.”
Jose Enrique Crisis Talk
talking to The Chronicle
“Everybody did their talking afterwards in the dressing room. I think it was important that this happened. To lose 6-1 now is bad, but it’s better to do it in a friendly game then when we go to West Brom. If it happens now and we lose, OK, it’s not great but we know that we can’t perform like that in the Championship or we will be punished. In the first half we didn’t play that bad but in the second I don’t know what happened. We’re now thinking about the next game – this was very bad for the players. I speak for myself. But for me it’s a 6-1 defeat and I don’t want to be part of that as a player.
Yet in some ways it can be a good thing. It doesn’t sound like it now but if we can learn from this and get the mistakes out of our system, it can help. We have some very good players who will do well in the Championship. We know it won’t be easy as it’s a tough place to play your football, teams will press us very hard.
It was bad for the supporters, I’m sorry for them. But at the moment it’s bad for everybody. We were all very bad, I don’t understand it because I’ve never played when everybody made so many mistakes.
I don’t believe that we are as bad as that result suggested. We have some players here who are looking forward to the challenge of getting promoted. It was a low point or my career, not the lowest, that was Aston Villa last season. This was only a friendly but everybody knows we have to do better.
All we can do is stick with it. We have Leeds next and I hope that the fans come out and get behind us. We still need them at this club.”