The O’s will play at least 14 games between now and the end of 2017 and host league leaders Macclesfield Town this weekend

Steve Davis is confident his Leyton Orient squad can handle the busy schedule coming up over the next couple of months.

The O’s host Macclesfield Town tomorrow before entertaining Gateshead on Tuesday night – both fixtures in the National League.

Orient also have an FA Cup trip to League One outfit Gillingham coming up at the start of November and the FA Trophy in December, but Davis is excited.

He has been delighted to see some of the younger members of his squad step up over the last few games in the absence of some more senior players.

“Could these next two home games shape our season? Who knows,” admitted Davis, after the 1-0 win over Dagenham & Redbridge.

“We’ve just got through to the next round of the FA Cup, which is great. I’d like to have a run and fans love the competition, so it would nice to go to Gillingham down the road and get a good result there.

“We have two home games coming up and two tests. Macclesfield coming here on top will be good and if we can get one or two back we’ll be stronger, but we’ll see how they are and plan ahead.

“The games seem to come really thick and fast in this league and you get very few mid-weeks where you are not playing.

“Obviously the FA Cup gives us more games and the FA Trophy will give us the same, but we’ve just been through a spell where we’ve had half the squad injured.

“The rest of the squad have now stepped up to the mark and they’ve look strong and comfortable, so that’s a big bonus.”

Davis has been pleased with the way Orient have performed over the last two games and wants more of the same on Saturday.

The O’s still tried to play their football in the two FA Cup matches with Dagenham, but also mixed it up against their local rivals.

With the Silkmen in top form and the current leaders, Orient will need to do both sides of the game again this weekend.

“It does suit us to play teams like Macclesfield because we’ve got more footballers than six foot four players, so we have to play our game,” said Davis.

“We can’t play the way others do. We have to play the way we play, but we have to stand up to things like the pressure and the long balls like we did on Tuesday.

“Teams will try to get in behind us and beat us up a bit, so we do need to be strong and resilient and cope with that, but the last few games have been promising.”

An encouraging sign on Tuesday was the number of times Macauley Bonne and David Mooney linked up.

The younger member of the strike partnership netted the only goal of the game against Dagenham to send Orient into the first round of the FA Cup.

Mooney picked up the assist, however, and should have got on the scoresheet himself had he not wasted a couple of excellent openings.

Bonne was involved in creating those opportunities for his fellow forward, but despite them missed chances, the signs were positive.

Davis added: “They were the original pair I played at the early part of the season and they were very good.

“They seem to have a better understanding than the others I’ve tried up front, but having said that, I’ve had longer to work with them.

“They’ve spent longer on the training ground, so they’ve got that chemistry and relationship, which is getting stronger.

“I thought they were a threat together and I was disappointed we didn’t get a penalty to make it a bit safer because it looked a clean penalty.”

Orient will hope to see more positives on Saturday and now get back to winning ways in the division.