County 2 Orient 3

Terry Butcher’s side staged a stunning fightback after a sloppy start to go in level at the break but they were beaten for the third time in four league games and currently sit in the bottom two of the early season table.

The visitors, who maintained their 100 per cent record to stay top, will count themselves a little lucky to be heading home with all three points this evening.

Orient were 2-0 up inside seven minutes and could easily have had four or five in a blistering start to the match.

Paul McCallum was afforded far too much time and space to head the O’s into the lead from inside the six-yard box in the fourth minute.

And his strike partner Jay Simpson unleashed an unstoppable effort from 25 yards that arrowed into the top corner of Joe Day’s net just three minutes later.

The livewire Dean Cox, who had provided the cross for the opening goal, picked out McCallum again soon afterwards and the striker saw his diving header just clear the bar.

And McCallum was desperately unlucky when he again rose highest from a corner and headed goalwards but the ball bounced on top of the bar three times before being cleared.

The County players, management and fans were shellshocked and it seemed certain that there was no way back into the game.

But the mood changed when McCallum attempted to get Seth Nana Twumasi sent off with a pretty blatant exhibition of play-acting.

The Orient number 10 ran into the back of Twumasi right on the touchline in front of the benches and the irate fans in the Hazell Stand and immediately hit the deck claiming to have been elbowed.

Referee Brendan Malone was not fooled but everyone of an amber persuasion was rightly angry and they used that feeling to good effect in the remainder of the half.

The Exiles had been gradually working their way back into the game without overly troubling Alex Cisak in the visitors’ goal before the final five minutes of the first period.

And what a remarkable few minutes it was as Butcher’s boys hauled themselves right back into a game that most fans had surely written off in the early stages.

First Scott Boden crashed a shot in off the underside of the bar after a fine move involving Twumasi, new loan signing Zak Ansah and Scott Barrow, on 41 minutes.

Then, barely 60 seconds later, Byrne matched Simpson’s earlier effort with a screamer of his own from at least 25 yards and the home fans almost took the roof off the Hazell.

County had the momentum going into the second half and they were well on top for the first 15 minutes after the break.

The hosts forced corner after corner and defender Kevin Feely, back from injury in place of teenager Kieran Parselle, saw a header clawed away to safety by Cisak.

They were committing more and more men forward and got caught out at the back just before the hour mark as star man Cox beat Day at his near post after a cross from substitute Blair Turgott.

It was extremely hard on County and yet another tough lesson about the harsh realities of life in League Two.

Aaron Collins, who had made way for Ansah in the starting XI, replaced the ex-Arsenal youngster, with a little over 20 minutes on the clock.

Regan Poole, who struggled at the back at times, got forward to test Cisak with a header, Boden nodded wide, Collins’ shot was inches wide and sub Josh Laurent scooped over late on but there was to be no resurrection to match the first half finale.

County: Day; Holmes, Feely, Poole, Barrow, Twumasi; Elito, Byrne, Klukowski (Owen-Evans, 83); Boden (Laurent, 75), Ansah (Collins, 68)

Subs not used: Taylor, Hayden, Parselle, Jones

Orient: Cisak; Clohessy, Baudry, Essam, Shaw; James (Turgott, 53), Pritchard, Moore, Cox (Kashket, 74); Simpson (Palmer, 54), McCallum

Subs not used: Grainger, Moncur, Agyemang, Ling Attendance: 2,779 (525 Orient)

Referee: Brendan Malone

Argus star man: Mark Byrne