ORIENT produced a display full of class against Leeds United on Tuesday night, only to be denied a much-deserved point by a rare lapse from one of their most classy players.

With just two minutes to go in a tight contest at Elland Road, Ben Chorley mis-controlled a long ball and forced skipper Stephen Purches to concede a throw-in.

From that, substitute Max Gradel wound his way into Orient's area and fired the winner high into the net past keeper Jamie Jones, giving the hosts a 1-0 win.

It was a crushing blow.

Afterwards, boss Geraint Williams said what everyone who saw this game was thinking, when he stated: "We thoroughly deserved a point.”

At least Williams and the players can gear up for next Tuesday's home game against Gillingham knowing that a repeat of what they did against the strongest side in the division should be too much for most other clubs they will come up against this season.

Officials at Elland Road had labelled the visit of Orient a 'catergory B'game, but the visitors turned in a class A performance and might have sprung a major coup.

Leeds boss Simon Grayson had warned his players against complacency ahead of this game. Last season, Orient killed off Leeds' chance of automatic promotion when they came back from 2-0 down to grab a point at Brisbane Road.

On Tuesday night, Orient deserved at least that against a sub-par Leeds side.

Afterwards Williams said he was 'very, very disappointed' to leave Yorkshire with nothing. Meanwhile, Grayson said his side had been out-played by Orient.

"I'm very, very disappointed for the players,” said Williams. “They were magnificent. Every player went out and did his job.”

Orient had several chances to go ahead in the first half, but dogged last-ditch defending by Leeds denied them.

“We were disappointed not to come off in front after the first half,” reflected Williams, who was unsurprised at the swash-buckling play his charges produced.

“Every player went out and did his job. But when you come to Leeds and you create opportunites, you have to take them and we didn't.

“We looked reasonably comfortable at the back. We came there to entertain and we did entertain. The idea was to be nice and solid and then to play.

“We're going to get a lot of plaudits, but no points from this. It was a good performance. Yes, we take a lot of positives and we move on.”

At least there were many good things for Orient to take from this into Tuesday's league clash against Gillingham at Brisbane Road.

The pair are close to one another in the table.

“They're all big games. With it at home and a local derby, we want to win that game, like we do all games,” Williams insisted.