Leyton Orient will not make any drastic changes to the way they approach their FA Trophy final against AFC Fylde later this month, according to assistant coach Ross Embleton.

By the time the Wembley date comes around, the O’s will not have played a competitive game for over three weeks, but a friendly against Aston Villa under-23s this Friday will allow the side to maintain a level of match fitness, while they continue to train with intensity.

Embleton said: “The one thing that we’ve done this year is maintained consistency throughout the season in terms of the way that we work, the intensity that we work at, the way that we prepare for games to I think it’s trying to make sure that we stick to that plan and that process as closely as we can do.

“Obviously it’s been a bit unique, that fact that we’ve had three weeks officially without a game. It’s important that we’ve given everybody that opportunity to celebrate what a fantastic achievement we’ve already achieved but at the same time we need to make sure we continue in the same manner.

“I think it [the large gap between games] makes managing it difficult because there’s a lot of teams whose seasons have ended so to have a games programme is tough and then to have a games programme where it’s competitive and we try to make it as close to a proper game is difficult.

“If you’re still in the play-offs at the moment, not that we would want to be, but if you are that process is managed for you because you still train the same and your games are of a high intensity so it’s important that we’ve got a game in in the middle of it to keep that match sharpness up.”

With a week of rest under their belts after clinching the National League title at the end of last month, Orient returned to training this week, while their trophy opponents Fylde have been competing in the National League play-offs, where they have battled to the final to play Salford City a week before they meet the O’s.

While it could be argued that this gives Fylde the edge, Embleton insists that they are only focussing on what they can affect, which is themselves.

He said: “You would say, to a degree, that probably gives them a bit of a foot up in terms of having something to play for and everything running on their games that they’ve got in place but we can only look after what we’ve got and we wouldn’t swap places with anybody to be in the play-offs.

“We’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve and now we need to do everything that we can to make this the best preparation to try and win the game.

“With the little bit of a break we’ve had it’s important that we haven’t just thrown the boys into full, intense training. We had a bit of an eased day or two to make sure that they were physically prepared to really start going at it again for a good 10 or 11 days before the final.”