Leyton Orient 2-2 Southend United

Orient’s pre-season ended with a 2-2 draw at The Breyer Group Stadium against Southend United on Saturday afternoon.

Orient goals from Macauley Bonne and James Alabi cancelled out Southend’s lead on two occasions with the visitors’ goals coming from Jason Demetriou and Tom Hopper.

The O’s got the game underway and after a slow start, Southend were first to register an attempt on goal when Theo Robinson sprinted clear on goal, before Josh Coulson’s recovery challenge sent the ball behind for a corner kick.

Jason Demetriou opened the scores on 15 minutes when the former Orient man picked up a loose ball and struck in to the top corner of the net from 25-yards to put the visitors a goal to the good.

The visitors continued to enjoy large spells of possession in the early staged of the game, Tom Hopper breached the O’s defence and forced an excellent save from Dean Brill to deny Southend a second.

With ten minutes of the first half remaining, George Elokobi came close to converting James Dayton’s corner kick, but the defenders’ effort is blocked in-front of goal.

Orient continued to apply pressure to the Blues but it was too late to affect the half as referee Alan Young blew for the break.

Edinburgh made two changes at the break, James Brophy and Craig Clay took the places of James Dayton and Charlie Lee respectively.

Four minutes after the break, forward Macauley Bonne converted a penalty kick as the referee deemed Harry Lennon’s challenge on James Alabi to be a foul.

Ten minutes later, Stephen McLaughlin rattled Brill’s bar after a defensive mix up saw the loose ball fall to the Shrimpers midfielder 20-yards from goal.

The visitors regained the lead shortly after the hour mark when Simon Cox’s chip rebounded off the crossbar before Tom Hopper nodded over the grounded Brill.

After 70 minutes of play former Southend man David Mooney replaced Bonne and Southend’s lengthy ball up-field was difficult for the O’s defence to deal with as Josh Coulson had to make a last-ditch challenge to deflect the effort behind for a corner.

Seven minutes later, James Alabi introduced himself to E10 with a goal as he beat off Michael Turner and stroked home from 20-yards with an excellent finish.

Orient began to enjoy possession late on in the game and almost took the lead when newly introduced Ruel Sotiriou connected with Jobi McAnuff’s cross at the back post but couldn’t direct the ball beyond Mark Oxley.

Shadrach Ogie came on in the 90th miunte but only enjoyed a short run out as the referee called time on the friendly fixture with the scores at 2-2.

WHAT’S NEXT

The O’s travel to National League new boys Salford City to kick off the season on BT Sport next Saturday August 4th.

TEAMS

ORIENT: Brill, Ling (Ogie 90), Widdowson (Judd 73), Lawless, Elokobi (Happe 73), Coulson (Ekpiteta 73), McAnuff, Bonne (Mooney 71), Dayton (Brophy 45), Lee (Clay 45), Alabi (Sotiriou 79)

SUBS: Sargeant

BOOKED:

GOALS: Bonne (50), Alabi (77)

SOUTHEND: Oxley, Coker, Hyam, Turner, Kightly, Hopper (Klass 85), McLaughlin (Ba 75), Manthon, Demetriou (Bwomono 65), Lennon (Gard 75), Robinson (Cox 45)

SUBS: Bishop, Kyprianou, Hendrie, Batlokwa, White

BOOKED:

GOALS: Demetriou (14), Hopper (63)

REFEREE: Alan Young

ATTENDANCE: 1,542 (269 Southend United)