Manager Mauro Milanese put Leyton Orient’s 1-0 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy semi-final defeat at Gillingham down to the O’s poor finishing and defending from set pieces, rather than a poor overall performance.

Centre-back John Egan scored the game’s only goal from a corner with 11 minutes remaining to end the prospect of penalties and send the Gills through to the Southern Area Final against either Coventry City or Bristol Rovers in the New Year.

Assessing his side’s performance, Milanese said: "There is a way to win and a way to lose and I think the good points were we didn’t lose because we played worse than them, didn’t create a chance, or because we gave up.

“We just lost because we did not finish well. We did everything OK for 95 yards but the last five yards, something happened,” said the Italian, pointing to the O’s profligacy in front of goal.

Bradley Pritchard passed up Orient’s best two chances from left-wing deliveries by Gary Sawyer and Shaun Batt, but it was set piece woe for the O’s once more as Egan rose unchallenged to head in a late winner for Peter Taylor’s side.

“I can’t complain about the performance. I can be disappointed with the concentration; how we mark at set pieces – they are costing us a lot,” admitted Milanese.

“We were better than them; we created more than them, we got the ball in their box many times but we did not score. I think the good things are the team is alive, creates chances until the last minute and in their box they don’t give up.”

He continued: “This week we trained a lot on set pieces because we thought if Gillingham got any, they would be dangerous.

“We already conceded three set pieces here at Gillingham in the league. Another corner ball killed us in the cup, so I think there are too many [goals being conceded from corners] and we need to do something. I asked the lads today to mark tighter and if possible double up on some players but we have lost another game in the same way.

“I think we are starting to make too many mistakes.”

Asked why Dean Cox had only been included on the substitute’s bench, Milanese explained: “Cox was in the first XI but the last training session he felt pain and he asked me to play a maximum of 15 minutes, so I used him at the end and he was ready [to come on] just as the corner was waiting to go in and then they scored.”

You can read the match report from Orient’s defeat at Priestield by clicking here.