DESPITE seeing his side suffer their first back-to-back league defeats of the season, Orient manager Martin Ling isn't ready to throw in the play-off towel just yet.

The O's endured a nightmare Easter weekend, with a 3-0 home defeat to Carlisle on Saturday followed by a 1-0 defeat at Cheltenham on Monday.

That left the east Londoners down in tenth, although amazingly still only three points off sixth spot.

And with six games still remaining, starting off with a trip to relegation threatened Port Vale on Saturday Ling has urged his players to keep fighting to the death.

He said: "Easter is normally a determining point of the season, where teams look to make the most of two games in quick succession, although unfortunately for us it has been a miserable time.

"After consecutive wins over Swindon and Millwall, it is hugely frustrating that we then go and suffer our first back-to-back defeats of the season.

"We've certainly shot ourselves in the foot, because when you look at the table we are only three points off sixth spot still and a couple of positive results over Easter could have put us right back in there.

"Of course we know it is almost a certainty now that we wont make it, we aren't going to throw in the towel just ye. There are still 18 points to play for and we will keep fighting to the end.

"We go to Port Vale now looking for a positive response and we certainly wont take them lightly because they are bottom of the table.

"They are still fighting for their lives and as we know no game in this league is easy.

"And after two defeats we don't go there with much confidence, while they've picked up a few decent results lately.

"Hopefully though we can go there and put our best foot forward and get a win under our belts so that the season doesn't just fade away.

"After that we've got five very difficult games coming up against sides in and around us in the table. In the same token though events are still in our own hands so we will keep going looking to win them all to see where that might take us."

With Brian Saah limping off against Cheltenham with a hamstring injury, Ling has revealed he will assess the fitness of fellow centre half Tamika Mkandawire to see whether he needs to make a move into the loan market before it shuts on Thursday.

He continued: "Tam has a real chance of being back for the weekend and with Sam Oji also close to a return we probably wont need to move in the loan market.

"Clayton (Fortune) also came on at Cheltenham and despite not really being in my plans over the last 18 months gave a professional account of himself."

Ling will also of course be without JJ Melligan for the trip to Vale Park, as he sits out the second game of his three match suspension following his red card against Carlisle on Saturday.