Oldham Athletic 2 - 0 Leyton Orient
Coca-Cola League One

ORIENT'S dismal run of form continued on Saturday when Oldham Athletic sent them to their fifth consecutvie defeat.

First half goals from Chris Taylor and Mark Allott took the game away from  lifeless Orient, who again posed little threat of their own.

Stephen Purches' loose touch in his own penalty area gave Oldham the opportunity to set up a fifth minute shooting chance for Allott, who drilled just wide of the far post from 20 yards.

Orient spent most of the opening 15 minutes in their own half, but a free-kick 35 yards from goal allowed them a route to the Oldham goal.

Sean Thornton lofted the ball into the penalty area, where Sam Oji was waiting to nod the ball back to Adam Boyd, who stretched to head and force a save from Mark Crossley.

Oldham made their decent start count, though, when they took the lead with 22 minutes on the clock. Deane Smalley outpaced Tamika Mkandawire to reach Sean Gregan's ball into the channel before cutting back to Taylor on the edge of the area.

The Oldham winger struck for goal first time, and his shot was expertly placed, beating Glenn Morris and sneaking home via the far post.

Orient almost responded immediately, with Jason Demetriou's fierce drive taking a deflection and flying inches over the bar after Sean Thornton had worked the ball out to the left hand side.

With 29 minutes on the clock, goalscorer Taylor was again central to Oldham's attacking play, getting a cross in from the left. Striker Matt Wolfenden got across Oji but, much to Orient's relief, could not divert the ball on target.

The game had little flow to it, punctuated by a number of free kicks in midfield, but Morris was called into action again three minutes later when he had to touch Eardley's long range effort behind.

The O's keeper had no answer to Allott's effort from the resulting corner, with the midfielder rifling a venomous effort into the roof of the net after Wayne Gray could only clear Eardley's flag kick to the edge of the box.

Following a very quiet start to the second period, the ever-dangerous Taylor again got at Purches again on 55 before crossing low towards Smalley, who knocked the ball wide of the mark.

Morris then had to stand up well to block from Smalley and Orient tried to change their fortunes by introducing Paul Terry and Jabo Ibehre from the bench.

Yet Orient continued to struggle and Oldham looked extremely comfortable in their lead.

They didn't have to work overly hard to protect it and veteran stopper Crossley left the pitch having surely had one of the easiest afternoons of his career.

Oldham: Crossley; Hazell, Gregan (Kelly 79), Stam, Lomax; Liddell, Eardley, Allott, Taylor; Wolfenden (Chalmers 74), Smalley
Subs: O'Donnell (GK), Winters, Brooke

Goals: Taylor (22), Allott (42)

Booked: Kelly

Leyton Orient: Morris; Purches, Mkandawire, Oji, Palmer; Melligan (Terry 56), Chambers, Thornton (Barcham 71), Demetriou; Gray (Ibehre 56), Boyd
Subs: Daniels, Saah

Referee: Mike Pike (Cumbria)

Attendance: 4.325 (136 away)