STEPHEN PURCHES may only be 28, but he has played the role of the elder statesman in the back four recently.

The O's skipper has had Sam Oji, 22, and 21-year-old pair Brian Saah and Aiden Palmer as his defensive partners in recent weeks, but he has been impressed by their mature performances.

And he was disappointed that they missed out on the clean sheet he felt they deserved at Brighton on Saturday.

He said: "I'm like the old man back there, which isn't nice at 28! But the young lads are doing really well and it helps when you've got a consistent team playing week in, week out.

"You get an understanding and the talking along the back has got a lot better as we've gone along. We've tightened up there and hopefully it can continue.

"Generally, throughout the game at Brighton, I thought we looked pretty solid and the lads have all pulled together well.

"But it was gutting to lose two points so late on.  Unfortunately, the ball's bounced up and Chambo couldn't get his hand out of the way - it's one of those that feels like a loss after a lot of hard work.

"Brighton had their chances in the first half, but we didn't let them create too much after half time.  It's heartbreaking to concede late because at the moment, single points don't mean an awful lot.

"It was a good goal from Jabo and once you score that late, you think you're going to win.  The same kind of thing happened to us at Swindon earlier the season and unfortunately it didn't go our way on Saturday."