MARTIN LING was not worried by his side's inability to find the back of the net at Boston United on Saturday, instead concentrating on the positives of a competitive workout.

The O's manager pointed to the importance of building fitness levels at this stage of the summer and insisted that the match sharpness will follow naturally.

"We knew it would be a competitive game.," he said. "We had most of the play and should have scored a couple of goals, but sometimes our decision making wasn't what it could be.

"These early pre-season games are what I call work-through matches, in which I'm more concerned with building our fitness levels.  The decision making, quickness of passing and goalscoring will follow.

"We had some younger players in the squad today and I think it's unfair if you put them all in together.  They were mix-and-match sides in both halves and we're trying to get the playing time into the players."

The main plus point was the performance of Wayne Gray following his injury lay-off and Ling was particularly pleased with his impact.

"I thought Wayne Gray looked outstanding when he came on," he continued.  "He got injured on the last day of last season and has just started to join in with us in training.

"We said to him that he was going to come here to do a bit of work on the pitch today, but he trained yesterday, said he felt good and asked to have half-an-hour.

"He got that and looked sharp out there.  JJ Melligan also looked particularly sharp in that period, so they were both pleasing aspects."