A FURIOUS Martin Ling did not hold back in his criticism of Orient's performance after they slumped to their fifth consecutive defeat at Oldham on Saturday.

The O's were never at the races on a miserable afternoon and Ling felt it was their worst display of the season.

"I think this one was the worst of the lot," blasted the O's boss. "The first 45 minutes was shambolic - there was nothing going forward and we were weak defensively.

"It looked as if we had our flip flops and swimming trunks on. I've had near enough five years in the job now and that doesn't equate with what I'm about.

"The players have been told that, and let's be honest about it, we've had relegation form for the second half of the season.

"The first 45 minutes was certainly the worst we've had this season, and I can't think of many worse even when we were in the doldrums last year.

"As a manager, I take responsibility for that - you're happy to take the plaudits when things are going well, but I'll take the criticism when things aren't going so well.

"It was a rubbish performance and we need to do better in the last three games."

Ling made five changes to his side for the Boundary Park clash, but it made little difference and the O's boss admitted that his side need a serious confidence boost for their last three matches of the season.

He added: "After four defeats on the trot, a shuffle of the pack was justified, but the five that came in were no better than what we had against Leeds last week.

"We're going to have to look to the reaction we get from the players in training, at players who aren't hiding away in the treatment room and want to play in big games against teams going for promotion.

"We've got to try to rally them up and look in their eyes and find people who want to do soemthing over those three matches."