Orient's Matt Lockwood On The Game

Last updated : 19 February 2007 By Thetashkentterror
Matt Lockwood
O's goalscorer Matt Lockwood spoke to Orient's Official Website about the 1-1 draw against United on Saturday afternoon, the left-back talking about being the number one goal-getter for the Londoners this season :


"It was a battle, scrappy. After the last two results it was important that we defended for our lives and worked hard. It was never going to be an attractive game of football, but we got the point. I thought we went 1-0 down against the run of play to be fair, but at the moment we're not really scoring goals when we're on top, and that's probably been our problem a little bit recently.

"If you look back at the last two games, if we'd scored first we probably would have won them, which sounds stupid because we lost 5-0 and 4-1, but I think it would give you that impetus to go on and do it. But we didn't, and again today we didn't, but we showed the character we have been showing in recent weeks to come back. Against Port Vale at home a couple of weeks ago we came back and won 2-1, and it was just a shame today we couldn't find that winning goal. But we'll settle for a point, because I felt, with all the injuries, especially our two centre-halves going off, it was good that we didn't let another goal in.

"Personally I don't think I let my head drop (when Carlisle scored), but it is obviously a worry, as we've conceded nine goals in the last two games, so when you let a goal in it is a natural reaction to think 'here we go again.' But I thought the way the game went today, it was a bit niggly, there were a few tackles flying in, and that probably suited us a little bit. It got everyone up for it, and we knew it was going to be a fight. We managed to get ourselves back into it second half and had a couple of chances there where I thought maybe we could have gone and nicked it.

"The longer the game goes on without us scoring gives them something to defend. But the guy (Zigor Aranalde) made a bad header from the corner, it's come straight to me and I've managed to put it in. It was good timing, as that set us up to maybe go on and get another one. That didn't happen, but it was nice to stop that losing run.

"It was nice, it went right in the top corner which is always nice to see. The lads still reckon I'm only top scorer because of the penalties, but I've scored four from open play which is pretty good for me. I couldn't care less who scores as long as we stay up though - we're all in it together and we all want the same thing, we all want to stay in this division at the end of the season. I think we've got enough in that dressing room to do it, it's up to us now to work our socks off and try to get those results going.

"I wish I wasn't top scorer, I must admit, I wish I was about third and there were two forwards who'd got more, but it hasn't happened this year. Maybe the chances have just fallen to me at the right times. We've been sharing them about a bit, there are quite a few people on fours and fives, but that's been our main problem this season, scoring goals. If we had someone with 15, 16 goals like other teams have, we wouldn't be in this position.

"But forwards are hard to come by. Ryan (Jarvis) came in today and I thought he did well, he worked hard and that's the first game he's played for two months. He's a young lad, and hopefully the more games he plays, the fitter he'll get and the better he'll get. But from what we've seen today he's definitely improved the squad.

"In the programme it said that from the last four games we'd picked up six points, which is better than if we'd won one and drawn two of them. In this league, it's probably better to win a few and lose a few, as a point isn't really enough. But it's just about getting that confidence back, knowing that the last two games were freak results, and if you look at the form table over the last two months, we're probably one of the teams down the bottom on one of the best runs. If we carry on like that over the next 14 games I'm sure we'll be fine."