Ian Hendon described MK Dons’ winner as a sickener after two late goals sent Leyton Orient to a cruel 2-1 defeat in the Capital One Cup first round last night.

The O’s looked poised to avenge their humiliating 6-1 defeat at Stadiummk in April and were leading 1-0 heading into the 90th minute. But two late goals from the newly-promoted Championship club handed Hendon his first competitive defeat in charge of Orient.

Head coach Hendon said: “We got to 90 minutes 1-0 up and we conceded from our throw in pretty much in their half. We weren’t set up right, the ball broke to them and went out wide and similar to our goal it was a good cross in. Mathieu’s (Baudry) tried to defend it and unluckily for us it goes in and it’s an own goal – so disappointing to concede that late on. To get caught with a sucker punch right at the end is a bit of a sickener really.

“It’s funny how it goes sometimes but the game should have been out of sight. We hit the post twice and Jay’s (Simpson) come on and forced a good save from their goalkeeper. If we had got a second, a little bit like Saturday, then I think we would have gone on to win the game but that’s football.”

Orient were more than holding their own and took the lead in the 38th minute when Dean Cox’s cross was sliced into his own net by Dons captain Dean Lewington.

The League Two side almost doubled their advantage in the second half but Ollie Palmer’s strike cannoned off the post.

Substitute Simpson was denied by a decent save from goalkeeper Cody Cropper in the last five minutes. That proved crucial as in the 90th minute skipper Baudry headed Ben Reeves’ cross past Alex Cisak.

It got even worse for the O’s as within two minutes MK Dons clinched the win when Carl Baker fired into the net.

Hendon felt fatigue towards the end of the game may have played a part but he was proud of his side’s performance in defeat.

He said: “I think the other thing you look at is they’ve made ten changes to their starting lineup from Saturday and we’ve made four so you could say maybe the legs had gone a little bit towards the end. I’m making no excuses and I don’t have to.

“We’ve come to a Championship club, performed really well and probably should have won the game. I’m disappointed in the result but the performance from our lads was superb.”

When asked about the improvement from April’s drubbing, Hendon replied: “I can’t comment on what went on before.

“All I know is I have a team out there and a squad of players that are working their socks off for each other and I can’t fault their effort one bit and we should have come away with a win.”

One notable absentee from the game again was midfielder Jobi McAnuff. Having finished as a Gold Cup runner-up with Jamaica this summer, he has missed out on pre-season with the O’s but the rumours of a move to Ipswich Town are unlikely to go away after not even being named on the bench in the first two games this season.

Hendon said: “He’s [McAnuff] had a big summer and as I said on Saturday we’ve had a squad of players together throughout the season and Jobi wasn’t a part of that. He’s played plenty of games so we will have to wait and see what happens.”