When Bristol Rovers last visited the Matchplay Stadium in East London for the first round FA Cup tie in November, Leyton Orient were flying high at the top of the division.

The O's have fallen away badly towards the latter end of the season in much the same way as Rovers have done.

A few months back this looked as though it might be a real promotion thriller; it is now a game between two teams with nothing to play for other than pride.

Orient will be looking to record a first win in eight matches, although Martin Ling's side can no longer end the campaign in the top half, the lowest they will finish is 14th, and they could climb into 13th, if they overhaul Swindon on the final day.

It will be considered by some fans as a disappointing end, considering the O's were promotion contenders for so long. But, given the fact they were universal favourites for the drop back in August, the O's boss has continued his remarkable record of making a year-on-year improvement for five successive seasons.

After watching his side run out of steam in the final furlong, Ling is keen to end the season with three points, as the O's have won just one of their last eight at home and have not recorded a victory of any description since their trip to Millwall in mid-March.

"We have not had that winning feeling for some time, so it's important to put that right against Bristol Rovers," reflected the O's chief. "We need to put a performance together on Saturday to say thank you to the fans for the support they have given us."

It will be the make-up of next season's squad rather than Saturday's game that will occupy Ling thoughts as he prepares to rebuild during the summer and he will sit down with the players who are out of contract next week and reveal their fate.

Ling's biggest decision is likely to revolve around striker Jabo Ibehre, the club's longest serving player. Ibehre, now 25, made his debut in 2000 when he was just 17 and, a year later, scored the two goals at Macclesfield that ensured O's a play-off place.

But the powerful striker has never quite realised his massive potential in a career that has been blighted by injuries. In nine seasons, he has made just over 200 league appearances for the club, but almost half of those have been from the bench.

Ibehre is one of 11 players whose deals expire and some will be offered new ones, so there will be no massive rebuilding like there was a year ago, especially as just four first-team contenders - Alton Thelwell, Paul Terry, Glenn Morris and Ibehre - are out of contract.

Two of the 11, Charlie Daniels and Andy Barcham, are Tottenham players and will return to White Hart Lane, Wayne Corden has already gone and played his part in Notts County's successful bid to stay in the Football League.

Of the other four, only defender Sam Oji has featured to any extent recently. Clayton Fortune's miserable spell at the club, confined to one appearance as a substitute this season, will surely end in a Brisbane Road exit.

While Efe Echanomi and Raphael Sylvester have not made a league start all season. Top of Ling's shopping list is likely to be a big striker, as well as a couple of players to balance the squad on the left, with a wide man and a defender both high priorities.

Paul Terry O's captain and brother of Chelsea's John said, "Now we've got to re-group and look to get back to winning ways against Bristol Rovers on Saturday. You want to give the fans something to go away with for the summer, so hopefully we can end the season on a high."

Before looking at the history of Rovers and Leyton Orient games let us examine the roots of Leyton Orient; they can be traced back to 1881 as the football team of the Glyn Cricket Club for the purpose of keeping fit in the winter months. In 1888, on the suggestion of a player who worked for the Orient Shipping Line, the club took the name of Orient, which fits in nicely with their location in East London.

They changed their name in 1898 to Clapton Orient in an attempt to gain support from the affluent residents of Clapton, London, whilst 1937 saw them move to their current home in Leyton. The end of World War 2 found Orient, in common with Rovers, in financial trouble. A fighting fund was set up to alleviate these problems, and yet another name changed followed, this time to Leyton Orient.

In 1962, they reached the pinnacle of English football, gaining promotion to Division One and 2 years later, their record attendance of 34,345 for an FA Cup tie against West Ham United.

In recent times, they have again faced financial problems. As the end of the 1994-95 season approached, with relegation looming came the news that the Club faced severe financial problems, with the PFA covering players' wages for a while. Orient were asked by the Football League to confirm that they could fulfil their fixtures to the end of the season and for a while it looked as if they might not finish the season, let alone start the next one.

After small businessman Phil Wallace admitted he did not have sufficient funds to buy the club, sports promoter Barry Hearn stepped in to take control of the club he supported as a boy. The club has been stabilised financially and in May 1999, played at Wembley in the 3rd Division Play-Off Final. Although they lost to Scunthorpe United, over 25,000 O's fans made the memorable trip.

Two years later there was further disappointment with a 4-2 defeat against Blackpool at the Millennium Stadium in another Play-Off Final. Despite going ahead after just 27 seconds thanks to Chris Tate, the Seasiders were too strong in the end.

Three years of struggle followed before a mid-table finish in 2004/05 season and an automatic promotion as 3rd placed club the following year. Orient's first season back in Division One was always going to be a struggle but they avoided the drop with a 20th place finish.

Rovers have had some exciting clashes with the East London team in recent seasons none more so than a 2001 Boxing Day eight goal thriller which saw the Gas run out 5-3 winners. It is interesting that generally games between the two teams are fairly low scoring affairs, with a few notable exceptions.

Orient have rarely scored many against the Gas and yet Rovers have hit a 4 and a 5 (besides that Boxing Day game) and amazingly enough they have both been in London. The first of those victories was a 5-1 win with goals from Holloway (2), David Williams, Randall and Withey on 23rd October 1982. Two years later on 30th November, Holloway, O'Connor (2) and Randall were scorers in a 4-1 win.

In 1998-99 the sides were paired together in both the FA Cup and League Cup. After a 1-1 draw at Brisbane Road in the Worthington Cup First Round First Leg, Mark Warren hit a dramatic 119th minute winner in Bristol after the tie looked set to go to penalties. But Rovers got their revenge in the FA Cup Fourth Round as three goals in the last 15 minutes saw off the O's challenge.

In recent years the likes of Lee Thorpe Justin Channing, Jamie Clapham and Jason Harris have played for both teams and of course Matty Lockwood played for both teams before his move to Forest. Wayne Carlisle is another who took the move up the M4.

In an early season game in 2004-05 Rovers travelled to Brisbane Road unbeaten with what appeared to be a rock-solid defence. However it crumbled and let in as many goals in one game as it had in the previous seven. It was a game in which Rovers played well in patches and actually led 2-1, but then conceded three goals in just seven minutes in the second half. It was Carlisle who inflicted much of the pain.

A Boxing Day home game with Leyton Orient gave Rovers the perfect opportunity for revenge for that first defeat of the season at Brisbane Road. However a Robbie Ryan handball on the line meant Rovers were down to 10 men and a goal down as Lockwood converted his penalty against his former team. Jamie Forrester equalised from the spot in the second half but Rovers found the one-man deficit too great to overcome a determined Orient team. It was Rovers' third draw in a row and a fourth game undefeated.

The last two seasons of League opposition saw the Gas win 3-2 in East London early in the season and then take part in a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Mem on 31st January 2006. Overall Rovers hold the upper hand with 41 victories to Orient's 32 in the 102 games.

Meanwhile Martin Ling admits he is worried he could lose quartet Alton Thelwell, Glenn Morris, Paul Terry and Jabo Ibehre this summer.

The Orient boss is preparing to offer the O's stars new deals as their current ones expire in the summer, but insists "he won't be taking anything for granted".

Ling said, "You learn from what has happened in the past, because while we offered six players new deals, only one of them stayed. So just because we will offer some of the players new terms, we won't be taking anything for granted, and there will certainly be some changes in the squad that is for sure."

Whilst there is little resting upon the result of this game, both managers have surely made up their minds on the likely make-up of their teams for next season, so it may well be the last time many of these players pull on their respective team jerseys.

Written by Gerry Prewett