BRAINTREE TOWN 1 LEYTON ORIENT 5

Vanarama National League

Braintree Town found out the hard way that the Vanarama National League leaders show no mercy if mistakes are made as Leyton Orient won 5-1 at Cressing Road.

In front of a crowd of 2,574 – boosted by a sizeable contingent of travelling fans – the Iron were well beaten over 90 minutes by a buoyant O’s side who are riding high at the top of the league.

Despite Braintree having their high-flying visitors on the back foot during a good spell in the first half, defensive mistakes were punished once more.

Former Colchester United striker Macauley Bonne was their chief tormentor as he scored a hat-trick as Orient extended their superb start to the season with a 13th unbeaten game.

In contrast, Braintree came into the game on the back of a deflating late defeat by Maidstone on Saturday and they made three changes from the side that started that game.

Those changes saw Lyle Della-Verde, Danny Rowe and Michael Clark all back into the starting line-up, with Justin Amaluzor, Mo Sagaf and Reece Grant all dropping to the bench.

Out of those changes, it was Clark’s inclusion that caught the eye as he was recalled to face his former club, having left Orient to join Braintree over the summer.

The visitors, meanwhile, made no changes from the side that had beaten Harrogate Town 3-0 on Saturday with a result that had taken them to the top of the table.

With the differing league positions of the two sides, Braintree may have started tentatively, but they didn’t and it was a confident opening few minutes.

They looked to get on the ball and dominated possession, but didn’t have the penetration needed to trouble their visitors and it didn’t take the O’s long to begin expressing themselves once they got on the ball.

That put pressure on the Iron back line and it told on seven minutes when Josh Koroma was bundled over in the box and referee David Rock pointed to the spot with no hesitation.

Up stepped Bonne and he dispatched the spot-kick to give Leyton Orient the early lead.

It was suddenly a bigger mountain for the Iron to climb, but they responded positively and looked to get forward, although O’s keeper Dean Brill wasn’t really troubled apart from a shot by Della-Verde that he had to palm out for a corner.

However, the Iron’s positivity got its reward on 23 minutes.

A ball into the box came to Michael Clark who was bundled over crudely and while referee Rock did not see fit to award a penalty this time as he had at the other end, Braintree capitalised on hesitation in the O’s defence.

With everyone appearing to stop, Della-Verde had the presence of mind to poke the ball past Brill and into the goal to pull Braintree level once again.

It was suddenly Braintree who looked the more threatening, with some wonderful committed running up front from Mohamed Bettamer, Rowe and Della-Verde that made sure the O’s were kept pressed back.

The visitors did manage to start getting out again, though, and they hit Braintree with a sucker punch on 40 minutes.

The long throw-ins of Charlie Lee had been causing problems at the back for Braintree and it was from one of these that Orient regained the lead.

Throw-ins like that are never pretty but can be effective and that was the case as a long ball hurled into the centre by Lee landed at the feet of Marvin Ekpiteta who had time to swivel and drill in a low shot that gave the visitors the lead at the break.

It was perhaps harsh on the Iron after the way they had responded to falling behind and they came out positively once again at the start of the second half.

However, the breakthrough wasn’t forthcoming and the O’s comfortably held their lead before extending it on 56 minutes.

The third goal came when Lee lofted a ball over the top behind the Iron defence that Killip had to come out beyond his area for.

However, the Iron keeper was beaten to it by Koroma and he curled the ball into the empty net with Nieskens just unable to chase back and clear.

Leyton Orient were in complete control now and they went further ahead on 64 minutes when a corner from the right landed at the far post at the feet of the unmarked Bonne, who had the simplest of tasks in putting it into the net.

The former Colchester man then made it five on 70 minutes when he slotted the ball in via a deflection to wrap things up if there were any doubts lingering about where the points were heading.

The Iron did press in the game’s latter stages, but by that point it was too late and Orient held on to their spoils with some comfort.

Braintree Town: Ben Killip, Cameron James, Michael Clark, Dave Nieskens, Jonathan Muleba, Joe Ellul (Justin Amaluzor 81), Ricky Gabriel, Billy Crook (Mo Sagaf 61), Danny Rowe (Elliott Charles 81), Lyle Della-Verde, Mohamed Bettamer.

Substitutes not used: Christie Pattison, Reece Grant.

Referee: David Rock.