ORIENT boss Martin Ling claims he wont be taking tonight's Johnstone's Paint Trophy game against rivals Southend lightly,writes Craig Rodhouse.

Ling has never seen his side progress further than the quarter finals of the competition but believes that it is a trophy that the O's have a real chance of winning this time around, and so will be putting out a side that he feels can win the game.

"It was good performance against Brighton, so we go into the game in good spirits and we'll take it with the seriousness it deserves, because in the latter stages its a very good competition." Ling said "I will be picking 15 of the 16 that made up the squad on Saturday, with only Alton Thelwell missing for precautionary reason with his knee.

“Some of the subs might start and some of the people that played might be subs and so we'll be sending out a team that we feel can go and win the game.

"Its a competition that really hots up towards the end and it's a trophy that we can win. We're never going to win the FA Cup or Carling Cup, so the only trophies we can win are promotion or the Johnstone's Paint. But it's a difficult game tonight, although I would like to have a good run in the competition."

And Ling revealed that he will be using the game as an opportunity to test some of the inexperienced members of his squad in a match that is bound to be a bit more exciting than the average first round Johnstone's Paint game.

"There's players that sat on my bench on Saturday that haven't seen a lot of action, and that haven't been tested at first team level.

“If you talk about Jamie Jones, Andrew Cave-Brown, Loick Pires, Luke Ashworth, their people that haven't started a league or first team game in their career. So if their on the teamsheet which some of them will be, it will be interesting how they act in this situation because there's nothing like real action to sort out the men from the boys.

"I'll certainly prefer going to Southend than Notts County like last season. Even though the crowd will be lower than a normal Leyton Orient v Southend game, it will still be a bit more than the first round of the JPT's we're used to, and I'm sure they'll shuffle their pack and will want to win the game like we want to."

However, the O's boss is hoping his side can reverse the trend that has seen them fail to hit the back of the net in the last three matches.

He added: "I'd rather it be 0-0 than 3-3, because defensive concerns are more of a worry, but there's been three games gone by without us scoring a goal.

“It's always a concern and its a concern for the players that we've only had two people on the scoresheet this year in terms of Adam Boyd who's had two and JJ Melligan who got one.

“But its nothing that I don't feel we can cope with as we've got players within our front six that can score goals and I think that will happen naturally."

And Ling is also hoping that the club's current injury situation will improve sooner rather than later.

He continued: "(Dean) Morgan, (Tamika) Mkandawire, (Soloman) Shields, (Danny) Granville are all moving in the right direction.

“It still isn't a clean bill of health in their, but its a situation you want to change quickly because there are too many people in that treatment room that aren't available for you and there is progression but not enough progression that they will be available for tonight."