Leyton Orient attacker Conor Wilkinson ‘jokingly’ reveals he didn’t want to copy Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish with the low socks and his real reasons for opting for the new-look this season.

The 25-year-old is having his best season so far, finding the net 10 times, and helping the O’s put in a solid first-half to the campaign.

The forward also revealed his lockdown motivation and playing matches behind-closed-doors this season.

“Sometimes when I've played recently I've just felt really restricted, I just felt tight, and I didn’t want that same mindset and I felt like it was my socks,” Wilkinson told the Orient Hour on Phoenix FM.

“I’m not saying I've got massive calves because I haven’t and my shin pads are only tiny, but I felt like it was restricting me, and I feel the same thing when I wear under armour.

“I don’t know why it’s in my head, but I feel overweight. This is my best season to date and I've rocked the low socks.”

The former Gillingham striker admitted he watched a lot of videos during the first UK lockdown which has helped him brush up on his finishing while setting himself a big target.

“As my seasons have gone on I've never really been a prolific goal scorer, I've always gone in and out of games, scoring here and there. I've never really hit the ground running scoring goal after goal.

“During lockdown I said to myself, I watched quite a lot of football and studied quite a few players, and I said if they’re scoring goals and I want to go to the next level then I kind of need to do that myself.

“I do believe I can play as high as I believe I can play, I think goals are going to play a big part in that, and in lockdown I was out on astro-turf working on my finishing.”

He added: “I’m on 7 now, 10 in all competitions, we don’t have anymore cup games but ideally from now I would like to personally hit 15 league goals as a right winger I could walk away from the season and say I'm happy with that.”

The Irishman also revealed it has been strange playing behind-closed-doors as it creates very different momentum switches.

“I think there is and there isn’t, there is obviously the positive sign of it where when we do go to a place like Morecambe on a Tuesday night, and we’re on top for the first-half then it goes either way.

“They come out ready to go or there fans are on top of them, but obviously It’s also frustrating not playing in front of them, and watch us live in the flesh, watch the performances, and we are putting results in.”

He did also admit how much the O’s noticed the fans returning despite in a limited capacity and only for two matches.

“Massively, even though it’s only 2,000, you go from playing in front of 20 of us on the side lines to 2,000, that makes a big difference.

“You don’t realise how much of a difference that makes, especially against Newport County, they were top of the league at the time and they were coming to get three points.

“The fans being there did help us and give us that extra push that perhaps we didn’t have the week before. It gave us a reason to strive to get the three points for them as well as us.”

He added: “It gives me that extra bit of a buzz to go and shut them up, say I’m on the bench and warming up, and they give me a bit of jib I think when I get on I'm going to score and I'm coming to you.”