Leyton Orient 3-2 Carlisle United: Blues bottom after defeat

Josh Vela put the Blues in front on his home debut but Shaq Forde's double and a Ruel Sotiriou goal earned victory for a superior Orient side.

Sean Maguire's injury-time penalty flattered the Cumbrians' performance as United, with an XI that featured five changes, once again laid on an underwhelming performance which offered little hope that they can survive in the third tier.

They are now on their worst losing run in the league since the September-October 2008, and still ten points adrift of safety with 16 games to go.

The Cumbrians also suffered an injury blow with new signing Jack Diamond limping off in the first half on another bad day for Paul Simpson's side.

Vela, making his full debut along with Diamond, gave United early hope when he arrived in the 21st minute to ricochet home an opening goal.

Josh Vela, second right, put United ahead (Image: Richard Parkes)

But Forde rifled Orient level on 40 minutes and then, in first-half added time, headed a second after a controversially-awarded corener.

Sotiriou then fired another before the hour mark and Carlisle offered painfully little in response.

Simpson made five changes to his XI in a bid to arrest the decline, with Vela and Diamond making their first starts.

They were joined in the side by the recalled trio of Fin Back, Ben Barclay and Jordan Gibson.

They took the places of Alfie McCalmont and Dan Butterworth, who dropped to the bench, Paul Huntington and Jack Ellis who were out of the squad, and Owen Moxon who left for Portsmouth on deadline day.

There was no place in the squad either for Georgie Kelly thanks to the minor injury Simpson referred to when the striker joined the Blues on Thursday.

Orient made two changes, George Moncur and Tom James replacing Dan Agyei and Jayden Sweeney, while one of their deadline-day arrivals, Arsenal striker Khayon Edwards, was a sub.

Carlisle began with Diamond and Gibson either side of Luke Armstrong in attack, with Vela and Harrison Neal in midfield and Back and Jack Robinson wing-backs either side of Barclay, Jon Mellish and Sam Lavelle in central defence.

The hosts made the first inroad as Theo Archibald ran beyond Barclay onto a ball from defence and clipped it past the advancing Harry Lewis, but the shot bounced just wide.

Diamond had penalty appeals dismissed as he went down under Omar Beckles' challenge, before the Sunderland loanee was denied by an Ethan Galbraith challenge as United broke.

Galbraith then tried his luck with a volley after more Orient pressure, his effort sailing wide, with Jordan Brown then denied by Lewis after his shot took a deflection off Neal.

Jack Diamond suffered a first-half injury (Image: Richard Parkes)

Carlisle then suffered a 20th-minute blow when Diamond went down, seemingly with an ankle problem, and the signal came from physio Chris Brunskill that he could not continue.

That brought Sean Maguire off the bench - and immediately Carlisle took the lead.

Maguire was involved to the left as he fed the overlapping Robinson, and home keeper Sol Brynn could not hold his cross as Armstrong lurked.

Orient attempted to clear but Vela arrived in the box to divert the ball back past the keeper and into the net.

The home side responded with further pressure as Forde went close from the right before Lewis needed a strong hand to save George Moncur's effort.

Further Orient efforts saw Ruel Sotiriou fail to meet a tempting Galbraith cross.

But the hosts' ability to unlock Untied in wide positions then paid off as further good movement saw Moncur drift into space to the right away from Robinson, and his lay-off was met with an excellent finish by the arriving Forde, the ball sailing out of Lewis's reach and into the top left corner.

Shaq Forde, right, fires Orient's equaliser (Image: Richard Parkes)

The buoyed hosts almost got another soon afterwards when Idris El Mizouni found space on the left but nobody could reach his dangerous low cross.

And after ref Ollie Yates indicated a minimum of three added minutes, the hosts went in front in the fourth, and in controversial fashion.

After Lewis had parried an El Mizouni shot, Barclay appeared to be fouled as the ball eventually went behind - but Yates awarded the hosts a corner.

And from the resulting delivery, Forde arrived in close-range space to power his second past Lewis, United's marking nowhere to be seen in their six-yard box.

Omar Beckles and Luke Armstrong battle (Image: Richard Parkes)

Carlisle protested to the officials but were left trailing at the interval.

Early in the second half United failed to clear their lines and Lewis had to be in the right place to save from Sotiriou.

Mellish was pushed into midfield, but Carlisle offered little improvement and then went a further goal behind.

Orient got the wrong side of Back in the middle as they broke, and then Sotiriou found space to the left of the box to finish crisply across Lewis.

Gibson had an attempt blocked as United looked for a way back, but the Blues offered no inspiration in their efforts.

Ruel Sotiriou scores Orient's third (Image: Richard Parkes)

With 17 minutes remaining Simpson sent on Seán Grehan for his debut with Dan Butterworth also introduced, Gibson and Back the men replaced.

The game, though, was petering out towards an inevitable conclusion with Carlisle coming up with no creativity or threat.

Orient should have scored a fourth in added time but unmarked sub Joe Pigott headed wide after Brandon Cooper had climbed to meet a corner.

Pigott then fluffed another chance before Carlisle got a consolation as Butterworth's cross struck an Orient arm and ref Yates pointed to the spot.

Sean Maguire scores from the spot for United's consolation (Image: Richard Parkes)

Maguire sent Brynn the wrong way for his second of the season but it was slim consolation for the Cumbrians and their 828 travelling fans as the Os chalked up a fifth consecutive win against United.

Fleetwood Town's 3-0 win over Port Vale saw them leapfrog Simpson's side at the foot of the third tier table.

Leyton Orient: Brynn, James, Happe, Beckles (Cooper 85), Brown, Archibald (O’Neill 76), El Mizouni, Galbraith, Moncur (Hunt 70), Sotiriou (Pigott 76), Forde (Pratley 85). Not used: Howes, Edwards.

Goals: Forde 40, 45; Sotiriou 58.

Booked: Galbraith, El Mizouni, Hunt, Forde.

United: Lewis, Barclay, Lavelle, Mellish, Back (Butterworth 73), Robinson, Neal, Vela, Gibson (Grehan 73), Diamond (Maguire 20), Armstrong. Not used: Breeze, Armer, McCalmont, Charters.

Goals: Vela 21, Maguire 90pen

Ref: Ollie Yates.

Crowd: 8,468 (828 United fans).