Leyton Orient U18 1 - 2 Southend United U18
Football League Youth Alliance SE Conference

ORIENT'S youngsters were made to regret a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal when they were beaten 2-1 by local rivals Southend United on Saturday.

The O's bossed large parts of this derby duel, but they went unrewarded as Southend made the most of their opportunities.

Youth team boss Andy Edwards felt on another day his side would have won comfortably.

He said: "We could have had five or six with the chances we had and we felt we should have won the game.

"Generally we defended well and it was a decent performance, despite the eventual result."

Having defeated Gillingham 4-1 on the opening day, Orient didn't take long to get into their stride and Billy Lobjoit's fierce shot was turned around the post by Shrimpers keeper Daniel Bentley early on.

Bentley then denied Bobby Scott, whilst Lobjoit drilled wide from the edge of the box and Southend took advantage of these misses by moving into the lead thanks to a flowing move.

James Stevens and Julian Okai combined to release left back Teddy Nesbitt, who clipped over O's keeper Tom Lovelock to open the scoring.

Orient were rattled and Duane Ofori-Acheampong blasted wide as he looked to stretch Southend's advantage, but they regrouped at the break and almost levelled on 48 when Scott drilled across the face of goal.

On the hour Moses Odubajo's claim that his shot had crossed the line fell on deaf ears, but two minutes later there could be no doubting the validity of Orient's equaliser.

Odubajo was again involved, lifting the ball over the Shrimpers backline for Chris Benjamin to run onto and fire into the net.

However, Orient could not build on their leveller and Southend went back in front after Greg Knock fouled George Smith inside the box. Stevens stepped up to bury the spot kick.

Benjamin was denied once more by Bentley as the hosts searched desperately for a second equaliser, but it would not come as they tasted defeat for the first time this season.

Orient: Tom Lovelock; Alan Mabuyaku, Greg Knock, Stephen O'Hara, Joe O'Donoghue; Billy Lobjoit, Callum Compton (Anthony Okadigbo 75), Michael Richardson, Chris Benjamin, Bobby Scott (Kaine Sheppard 60)
Subs: Yilmaz Askoy (GK), Sam Konway, Jack Dekanski