Eastleigh 1 - 2 Leyton Orient
Joma 2010 South West Challenge Cup Preliminary Round

DEAN COX struck late on to give Orient a winning start to their Joma South West Challenge Cup campaign.

The O's wideman found the winning touch with seven minutes left to settle a tight game against Eastleigh and put them in command in Group Two,

Eastleigh, of the Blue Square South, thought there should have been an offside in the build up, but the whistle never came and former Brighton man Cox took advantage to strike.

Orient had fallen behind in the first minute, but soon levelled through Jimmy Smith. Eastleigh then gave a stubborn display and looked set to take the game to penalities but the Londoners kept plugging away and were rewarded near the end.

The O's hadn't conceded a goal in the opening two friendlies this summer, but they found themselves behind to Eastleigh with less than 60 seconds on the clock.

Richard Graham was the man to strike, drilling a low shot beyond Jamie Jones' left glove and into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

However, the non-leaguers advantage wasn't to last long and Orient were back on level terms after five minutes when Smith received the ball from Ryan Jarvis and found the bottom left hand corner of the net from outside the area.

Orient then settled into the game and enjoyed plenty of possession. Eastleigh's deep defensive line made it difficult to penetrate though and goalscoring chances were few and far between.

The O's best chance of the opening period fell to Alex Revell, but he couldn't find the angle to beat Eastleigh stopper Gavin Barfoot after Kenny Gillet had made a good run down the left to cut back.

At the other end Jamie Brown nodded over from a free kick, but Orient were comfortable, even if Eastleigh were proving a hard nut to crack.

The second period began in much the same vein, and Jamie Jones did very well to get down and touch Stafford Palmer's shot behind on 64 after the Eastleigh man worked the space to get his effort away.

O's sub Matt Spring tested Barfoot with a skidding drive from 25 yards that the Eastleigh stopper gathered in at the second period, but with time running out penalties were looming.

However, Cox made sure that wouldn't be necessary by sliding a shot across Barfoot and in off the far post with seven minutes remaining.

Eastleigh thought they should have had an offside decision go their way in the build up when Scott McGleish tried to pick out Ryan Jarvis, who was beyond the last man.

The ball didn't reach Jarvis though, so the referee played on and the O's took advantage with Spring spreading the ball out wide for Cox to strike.

It was enough to settle the game as Orient kept qualification for Saturday's semi-finals in their hands.

Orient: Jones; Omozusi (Spring 61), Forbes (Tozer 63), Brown, Gillet; Chambers, Dawson, Smith, Jarvis; McGleish, Revell (Cox 61)
Subs: Butcher (GK), Patulea, Cestor, Porter

Goals: Smith 5, Cox 83