United lost their third game of the season this afternoon at Brisbane Road, Gary Alexander scoring in the 64th minute to give Orient all three points. Dean Whitehead almost equalised in injury time, but his free kick was excellently saved by Glenn Morris. There wasn’t much else for United fans to get excited about as the side failed to create many chances and rarely looked like rescuing anything from this match.

United started with the same line-up as against Kidderminster last week, with Richie Foran making his last appearance on loan from Carlisle up front alongside Steve Basham. At the back Jon Ashton retained his place, as did Paul McCarthy in favour of Matt Bound. Shortly after Orient scored Ian Atkins made his first substitution, bringing on Mark Rawle for Paul Wanless. This was followed by Foran being replaced by Jefferson Louis and, shortly before the end, Lee Steele came on for Steve Basham.

The referee was A N Butler, who showed a yellow card to Hunt. However it was Orient’s David and not United’s James. The attendance was 5,433, Orient’s best home league gate of the season, of whom around a quarter were in the away end. We have been promised a match report for tomorrow, perhaps.

Despite this defeat United remain third thanks to a mixed bag of results elsewhere. Leaders Hull pulled further away with a 2-1 win over York, for whom Lee Nogan scored, while second placed Doncaster came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 (despite being reduced to ten men) at Scunthorpe, who visit the KasStad on Wednesday. Mansfield stay 4th despite going down 3-0 at Rochdale, but Yeovil, who United visit next Saturday, won 1-0 at Kidderminster to go fifth.

Torquay have gone up to sixth after winning 2-1 at Swansea, who are now ninth, while Huddersfield have dropped to seventh, losing 2-0 at home to Darlington, who remain second from bottom. Lincoln are 8th after being held to a 1-1 draw by local rivals Boston.

Bottom side Carlisle continued their recent good form, coming from behind to beat Bury 2-1, with Paul Simpson scoring their first goal. They remain eight points behind 3rd bottom Southend, who beat Cambridge 1-0. In the Conference Jamie Brooks scored on his debut for Tamworth, grabbing their first goal in a 4-3 win over Leigh RMI.