ORIENT'S youth team kept their unbeaten start to the season going after a late fight back at Gillingham on Saturday.
Despite going in to the final quarter-hour two goals down, Alex Inglethorpe's side showed their resilience to snatch a point after strikes from Daniel Glozier (pictured) and Efe Echanomi.
Glozier notched his second penalty of the campaign on 75, slotting home from the spot after Joe O'Cearuill had been fouled, before Echanomi opened his account for the season by turning home a loose ball five minutes later.
Already without Gabriel Zakuani and Brian Saah through first team commitments, the Os were dealt two further blows when Paul Jones was called up to the senior side on Friday afternoon following Lee Harrison's injury and then Scott Wallis injured himself in the warm-up.
But coach Inglethorpe was delighted with the response of his young troops - even though he had expected them to get a win from the game in the first place.
"In retrospect, when you're 2-0 down with 15 minutes remaining and you get a draw you've done well and you're happy with a point, but the way we've been playing I felt we could win the game, he said.
"We started brightly enough and Prince Toku had a one-on-one chance that could have given us the lead but we didn't play with as much fluidity as we have been doing and Gillingham scored either side of half-time.
"This was the lads' first uphill task of the season and they dealt well with it - we even felt we could go on and win once we'd drawn level but it wasn't to be.
"Without Paul Jones, who's our captain as well as goalkeeper, we brought in under-17 trialist Lee Patterson who has played for the club before and did very well again.
"He's got an excellent long kick on him and can make good reaction saves and we were pleased to be able to use him at short notice."
Orient (4-4-2): Lee Patterson; Greg Tiffin, Joe O'Cearuill, Daniel Glozier, Aidan Palmer; Jason Demetriou, Tommy Laxton, Bryan Glover, Derek Duncan; Efe Echanomi, Prince Toku.
Subs: Tom Ziepe for Glover (50), Nuno Gourgel for Toku (60).
