Steve Davis has implored his Leyton Orient players to turn the corner and rediscover their winning form against Aldershot Town on Saturday.

The O’s have hit a worrying downturn in fortunes, losing three games on the spin to fall to 13th in the National League.

Their performances during those matches have also been found wanting with teams out-fighting them and showing a clinical edge which has deserted Orient.

Aldershot, meanwhile, are in flying form and have moved to the top of the table after taking 10 points from their last five games.

Davis is, therefore, aware of the challenge which awaits his side on the road on Saturday, and accepts the O’s will have to be at their best to end their losing run.

Davis said: “That will be a really hard game. We’ve got to perform very well to get a result at Aldershot and turn around the results at the moment.

“I think we’re actually playing ok but we just need to turn those decent performances into results, but it will be a tough game.

“It won’t be difficult to lift the players. Those that are fit will be ready.”

The O’s could well benefit from Town’s style of play, with both sides committed to playing an attacking and attractive style of play.

Orient, who have been leaky in defence in recent weeks, will have to be alert at the back.

Town have found the net 18 times this term, the same amount of goals as Orient have conceded.

Davis believes his side’s difficulties come from teams sitting deep against them rather than sides who play expansive football.

“We’ve noticed a pattern emerging in this league when a team like Leyton Orient go behind and teams are quite happy to hang onto it and ask us to break them down,” he said.

Orient’s task has been complicated by a host of injuries which have left them without a number of key players.

Charlie Lee and George Elokobi are both long-term absentees with respective knee and hamstring problems, while Josh Coulson and James Dayton are battling to be fit for the Town clash.

Craig Clay and David Mooney added their names to the injury list and Davis could be without as many as nine players for the game.

Despite the worsening crisis, Davis refused to commit to entering the transfer market after a summer of recruitment has drained financial reserves.

“We’re at the budget and we don’t want to spend ridiculously like others have in the past. We want to be sensible with that,” he said.

“At the same time, we might need to do one or two things with the players missing at the moment.

“Who is going to let one of their players go from the league because they can’t get a loan replacement until the window opens? It is a problem.

“It is not for the want of trying, but we have found it very difficult to get players in to cover for the injured ones.”

Such is the tightness of the National League table, Orient are only two points off fifth-placed Maidenhead United.

Similarly though, they have only a four-point buffer to the drop zone and could end Saturday as low as 17th in the table.

Aldershot arrive at the game on the back of a 1-0 win on the road against Gateshead, which came via Fabien Robert’s 83rd-minute winner on Saturday.

Breaking Aldershot down could also prove to be a tough task for Orient, with the nine goals they have conceded second only to Dover Athletic’s seven across the entire division.