MARTIN LING admitted that two precious points had slipped from Orient's grasp at Notts County on Saturday.

The O's were never at their best, but still looked set for their tenth away win of the season when Wayne Corden fired them in front just after the interval.

But the visitors couldn't find a killer second goal and were undone by a County set-piece 16 minutes from the end.

And Ling knew that a three-point haul would have placed more pressure on the top three with six games to go.

"In the the first half we were poor on the ball," he said.  " We were resolute in defence, but we never got Wayne Corden, Joe Keith or either of the central midfield boys in possession.

"Then we were the agressors in the second half and it looked as if we would grind out another 1-0 victory, but were undone at a set-piece.

"It was a good finish from Wayne for our goal, but we didn't move on after getting the opener.  At 2-0 the game would have been over and we did have the chances to score a second.

"I'd say that the second half performance was more than adequate but the first wasn't good enough."

After a poor first half, Orient looked to have found their spark when Corden's opener was followed by a spell of pressure on the County goal, and Ling feels that, follwing a period when his side went off the boil, the O's are coming back into form.

He continued: "I feel that our passing game is coming back slowly.  It's been bubbling under the surface both last week against Wycombe and again today, but we need it to come to the fore for a ninety-minute period.

"I feared for us after Rushden, because although it was our first defeat for seven games, we hadn't been playing well during that period.  We've bounced back  from that well though, and the last two games have been better.

"When you're at the top of the table you have to win your games so today does feel like two points dropped.

"I still think that 80 points will take us up and the equation now is that we need four wins and a draw from our last six games."