O's Boss Martin Ling On Tomorrow

Last updated : 21 March 2008 By Thetashkentterror

Martin Ling
Orient manager Martin Ling spoke to the official O's website ahead of his side's two Easter weekend matches at home to Carlisle and away to Cheltenham, Ling here talking about the game against United tomorrow :


"Easter is always a hugely important time with two games so close together. If we come out with six points we'll be right in the play-off spots, but if we lose both we could go down to 12th - it's as tight as that. These are two big games. Carlisle are lying third at the moment and Cheltenham are in good form and getting themselves away from the bottom four. They will be two difficult games, but two games that I believe are winnable.

"They (Carlisle) are a formidable force at home. They've gone on an unbelievable run of consecutive wins there. But away from home they're not so good. I had them watched last week at Swindon and the report came back that they were lucky to get a point.

"You do feed on that type of thing, and it's an opportunity for us to put one over on them. Carlisle beat us 1-0 up there and I thought we played well and had a goal disallowed that should have stood. But this is a game we go into full of confidence following the back-to-back wins and it's one that I feel we can take three points from.

"We've had Stephen Purches and Charlie Daniels both return to training in the last couple of days, which is pleasing. The treatment room only has two people in there now - Sam Oji and Tamika Mkandawire. They could be in the running for next Saturday and it'll be good to have them back for the last six games of the season."


Meanwhile O's midfielder JJ Melligan, who played under United boss John Ward at Cheltenham, commented :

"I'm really looking forward to these next couple of games and as a team we go into them with confidence. I'm looking forward to seeing John again and hopefully after they beat us 1-0 earlier in the season we can come out on top this time. It is not going to be easy though because they are playing well at the moment, but after a couple of good wins ourselves hopefully we can get another one on Saturday.

"The last two results were massive for us. They've done wonders for our confidence and everyone's buzzing again. We're right back in the hunt for a play-off place and we're desperate to get there. It would be a massive achievement for us - we were one of the favourites to go down at the start of the season, but we've proven the bookies wrong and we'd love to finish the job by winning promotion now.

"The game is hugely important for both sides. Knowing John Ward as I do from our Cheltenham days, I know he won't want to come all the way down from Carlisle to get beaten, so they will be up for the contest and we will have to be too. Carlisle are going for automatic promotion whilst we're looking for the play-offs, so both teams need the points and it should be a cracking game. But it's one that we'll go in to full of confidence following two wins in a row and it would certainly be nice to make it three wins in a row!"



As Martin Ling has already mentioned, Orient only have two players missing tomorrow, those being centre-halves Sam Oji and Tamika Mkandawire who are sidelined with hamstring and hernia problems respectively. In better news for the O's though full-backs Stephen Purches and Charlie Daniels will return to action, Purches having been out with a bout of chickenpox while Daniels comes back from an ankle injury.


The referee for tomorrow's match is Keith Hill from Royston in Hertfordshire, and he will be assisted down the lines by Gary Jerden from Grays in Essex and Ashley Slaughter from Brighton. Meanwhile the fourth official is Stephen Child from Kent.