ORIENT striker Jabo Ibehre is hoping to play his way to a new deal at Brisbane Road this summer.

The 25-year-old, who came through the O's youth system is out of contract in the summer, and is hoping to convince manager Martin Ling to hand him new terms.

Ibehre, who returned to the starting line-up for the 2-0 defeat against Leeds on Saturday, is however more worried about ending Orient's recent slump in form at Oldham this weekend.

He said: "Of course I want to sit down and talk with the club about a new contract, because I want to stay here next season.

"At the moment though my main focus is just staying fit and trying to play as many games as possible.

"Hopefully I can be involved and play my part in trying to end this run of three straight defeats.

"We know we've got some tough games coming up until the end of the season, but we will go out there fighting in every one of them.

"Of course we're disappointed the play-off places have slipped us by especially after the start we made to the season, but we will keep battling away.

"We have improved on last season already, but we still want to end the campaign on a high and hopefully we can still pick a few more wins along the way.

"We just need a performance now to get the confidence back and it will be good if we can do that at Oldham on Saturday."

Ibehre was quick to admit though that despite putting in the effort against Leeds, they came up well short at the weekend.

He continued: "It was a big disappointment, because we did start with a good tempo.

"Things didn't fall for us on the day though and it the end we struggled to get going. But the effort was there and hopefully if things start going our way again we can get back to winning ways sooner rather than later."