ORIENT manager Martin Ling urged his side to stay upbeat despite remaining rooted to the foot of the table after suffering their tenth league defeat of the season, following their 2-1 loss against Bradford on Tuesday night.

The O's also face a mounting fixture list after they could only draw their FA Cup second round tie at Torquay at the weekend. But despite growing pressure Ling is hoping Saturday's home game with Huddersfield and Tuesday's replay with the Gulls at Brisbane Road will lead to a positive week.

He said: "December is a massive month for us with so many games coming up, and the one thing we can't be seen to do as a club is get our heads down now.

"The minute we do that we are dead in the water, and while the pressure is there because we are bottom of the table the dressing room is still upbeat.

"Hopefully that will carry us through against Huddersfield and Torquay now.

"We must aim to pick up a result up on Saturday to keep us in the hunt with the other seven or eight teams down there in the table with us, before we look to try and make it through in the Cup against Torquay and set upwhat looks a very appealing home tie against Southampton in the next round."

There are however doubts over skipper John Mackie for the coming games, with Ling admitting: "In hindsight John shouldn't have played against Bradford.

"He has now had two injections in his foot this season to keep him going and only had the latest one on Monday."