MARTIN LING believes a win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday would be the kickstart Orient's promotion challenge needs.

The O's, having beaten Luton last week, will be looking to register consecutive victories for the first time in five months and the manager knows that statistic needs to be consigned to the history books.

"It is a big game for us," he said. "It's one of the two, along with Leeds, that you look to at the start of the season. But more than that, it's a big game because we got a good away win at Luton last week and we need to follow that up with a victory.

"We haven't had back-to-back victories since September and we're going to have to stop that if we are to get into the top six.

"Games against the teams in and around you are more important than the others - there's no escaping that. I think Forest will definitely be a top four team, but it would be a great result if we were to get a win against them.

"It will be a tough game, we lost 4-0 up there last month, but it wasn't a 4-0 type of game. We started well in that game and were the better side for the first half hour.

"It wasn't so good after they scored the first goal, but we need to start like we did up there. We do need to be massively on our mettle if we are to get a victory."

Matt Lockwood, a former teammate of Ling's at Orient, will return to Brisbane Road for the first time since joining Nottingham Forest on Saturday, and the O's boss is sure the legendary left back will get the reception he deserves.

He added: "Matt got a good reception up there, and he will get a good one here. We don't know whether he'll be playing, but he deserves a good reception - and then we'll move on from there and hopefully put one over him."