Crystal Palace loanee Levi Lumeka is not available for the O’s

Leyton Orient will be without Levi Lumeka and Joe Widdowson for today’s FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie at Maidstone United.

Defender Widdowson will serve the first of a three-match ban following the red card he picked up during the stalemate at home to Hartlepool United last weekend.

He will be a big miss for the O’s after starting the campaign with a string of consistent displays, but it should offer Sam Ling an opportunity to impress, albeit out of position.

Meanwhile for Lumeka, his frustrating loan spell with Orient continues with parent club Crystal Palace not giving the wide-man permission to play in the tie.

The young winger has struggled for opportunities since moving to E10 and although he struck twice in a recent behind closed doors match with Barnet, his all-round game is lacking compared to Jobi McAnuff, James Dayton, Josh Koroma and James Brophy.

It means even if Lumeka had been available for this afternoon, he still probably would not have been selected in the starting XI.

Yet whoever head coach Justin Edinburgh picks at the Gallagher Stadium, the Orient manager will back them to send O’s into the first round proper.

Speaking after the Hartlepool game, he said: “All of the decisions are difficult regarding every player in the team.

“Ling come off the bench, and he hadn’t played for a little while, and he was excellent.

“We had to be mindful of the fact (Myles) ‘Juddy’ was on a booking and we didn’t know what the referee was going to do, so we had to take it out of his hands because he couldn’t be trusted on the day

“And like I said in my programme notes, this squad is only as good as the people who don’t play and everyone who come on against Hartlepool affected the game.”