BRISBANE Road is fast becoming a place teams do not want to come to.

That was the view of manager Geraint Williams after Saturday's battling 2-2 draw with Southampton.

After struggling on home soil earlier in the season, Orient have now only lost once in five home games.

Williams said: "Brisbane Road is not an easy place to come to. People were talking about home hoodoos and all that rubbish, but now all of a sudden it’s a place that people don’t want to come to.

“We wanted to get off to a bright start and let Southampton know that this is our pitch, and that’s exactly what we did.

“It’s another point on the tally."

The O's were so close to a famous win against highly-rated Southampton, who arrived in east London with four wins in their last five games.

But dead-eye Rickie Lambert hit two goals for the Saints in the final 15 minutes of this thriller.

Williams had told his players before this game to go out and put the visitors under the cosh.

They did just that when Tamika Mkandawire headed the hosts into the lead on two minutes.

It shocked more than 3,000 noisy Southampton fans.

Then they were stunned into silence as Orient doubled their advantage.

Andros Townsend’s cross deflected off Neal Trotman into his own net on 56 minutes.

But Lambert’s goals on 74 and 84 minutes rescued a point for Alan Pardew’s side.

It sparked a frenzied pitch invasion by Southampton fans.

Williams was not too disappointed, however.

“I always go into the game looking for a win, maybe not always realistically. But if you don’t aim for a win, what’s the point in crossing the white line?

“We believed that if we did everything right we could win this game. I think the lads were magnificent from the first whistle to the last."

On Lambert’s double, he said: “At the end of the day they were two-million-pound finishes, and that’s what you get when you pay £1m for a striker."

Stand-in keeper Glenn Morris made a string of fine saves to keep the Saints out.

Luke Ashworth replaced Mkandawire who left the pitch bloodied after he clashed heads scoring his goal. The youngster was solid.

Midfielder Jimmy Smith said: “We’re disappointed to not get the points. Southampton are just a name. We went out there confident we could get those points, but we’ll have to take the draw.

“Sometimes we maybe need to concentrate more as a team in the final few minutes of games.

“But I think we played well in front of a big crowd, and I think we were unlucky not to get three points.”

* Go to guardian-series.co.uk/sport for a full Orient v Southampton match report.