Justin Edinburgh hailed the performances of young duo Josh Koroma and Marvin Ekpiteta after their goals propelled Leyton Orient to their first win of the season against Maidstone United.

Koroma, who replaced James Alabi in the starting line-up, proved his worth by opening the scoring in the tenth minute, when he flicked the ball over Will De Havilland after Dean Brill’s long ball forward, before calmly slotting past Lee Worgan.

Ekpiteta doubled Orient’s advantage just after the half hour mark when he notched his first goal for the club, latching on to James Dayton’s pinpoint cross before heading past Worgan.

Maidstone set up a nervy finish when Shamir Mullings pulled one back with ten minutes remaining, but the O’s learnt from previous mistakes against Ebbsfleet United and Barrow by holding on to secure their first three points of the season.

Ekpiteta has been impressive for the O’s since replacing George Elokobi in the starting line-up, while Koroma came into the campaign after a prolific pre-season, and Edinburgh heaped praise on the duo following their respective performances after the final whistle.

Speaking to Leyton Orient’s website, Edinburgh said: “It feels extremely good. We’ve been in a fight there and were taken all the way. I’m pleased for the players because under difficult circumstances, we’ve conceded two leads consecutively in late fashion. But we stood firm tonight. I’m really pleased for the players.

“Marvin needed to be alert in both boxes tonight. Certainly at the end, there were a lot of balls being thrown into our box. I’m pleased for both Marvin and Josh. Josh has been out of the team since the start of the season but I thought he made impacts against Ebbsfleet and Barrow and he’s justified his starting place tonight with a very good goal.”