Stevenage Borough 3 - 2 Leyton Orient
totesport.com Combination Eastern Division

ORIENT'S reserves missed out on the chance to go top of the totesport.com Combination Eastern Division when they slipped to a 3-2 defeat at Stevenage Borough on Tuesday night.

The home side raced into a three-goal lead before the hour mark, but Orient came back strongly and almost forced a share of the spoils thanks to goals from Jake Argent and Loick Pires.

The O's team only included four players with first team experience and assistant manager Kevin Nugent said it was a good effort.

He said: "We're disappointed with the result, but we had a young side out there and they will have learned from this evening.

"We gave away two soft goals in the first half and we made too many mistakes, although we did go close to coming back."

Argent forced a good save from former O's keeper Ashley Bayes on the half hour, but it was Stevenage who took the lead when Theo Swaine rounded goalkeeper Daniel Bygrave to net.

Three minutes before the interval, Swaine doubled his and the home side's tally when he ran onto a lofted ball inside the area to loft over Bygrave.

Swaine completed his hat-trick seven minutes into the second half, but Argent gave Orient hope when he headed home from a corner with 62 minutes on the clock.

Three minutes later, Pires further reduced the arrears when he took advantage of Bayes' dropped catch to force the ball home.

Orient thought they should have had a penalty for handball late on, but there was no way back for the O's, who saw a run of three straight victories come to an end.

Orient: Daniel Bygrave; Brandon Martin, Luke Ashworth, Adam Bailey-Dennis, Matt Hall; Harry Baker, Solomon Shields (Harry Beautyman), Bradley Gray, Loick Pires; Adam Bolle (Louis Crowther), Jake Argent