MARTIN LING believes Orient's derby duel against Southend United takes on even greater importance as the end of the season closes in.

Saturday's game will take Orient up to the two-thirds mark of the campaign and Ling says the promotion race is really hotting up.

"It's a big game against our local rivals," he said. "We got one over them earlier in the season and they'll be looking for a bit of payback, but we've been good on our own patch recently and we'll be looking for that to continue.

"It should be a good atmosphere - they'll bring around 2,000, and tickets are going well on our part too - and that tends to lead to a good game.  It suits us when there's a good atmosphere, because it means the game is played at a higher tempo and that it how we play best.

"You look at this game, and the one against Tranmere next week, as important matches because both of them are looking to overhaul us and move into the top six.  We have to win those sort of games, or at least gain a point away from home, and we're getting to a big, big stage of the season.

"Walsall wasn't scintillating, but it was dogged and determined.  We needed some kind of response to the Northampton defeat and we got that, but the point we took on Tuesday will only be a good point if we beat Southend.

"We haven't had an awful lot of chances over the last two games and we will be looking for more creativity tomorrow.  We do have a couple of people back from injury - Gray and Ibehre are both available tomorrow and I'm pleased that we have five forwards available again.

"There is the need to get more balls into the box and we've been working on that for the last couple of days to ensure we make chances for the forwards."