Ruel Sotiriou brace helps Leyton Orient to away win at Stevenage

Sotiriou’s first goal of the afternoon had Orient in front at the break. He then struck again in the second half, but only after January signing Ouss Cisse had scrambled home his first goal for the club.

Ross Embleton made just one change to the side that was beaten at Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday, with goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux coming in to make his debut in place of Sam Sargeant. Danny Johnson, who signed from Dundee earlier in the week, was on the bench.

It was a fairly even start to the game from both sides, although Stevenage perhaps looked the more threatening on the counter-attack, particularly with a strong wind going in their favour.

The conditions were proving to be a test for Vigouroux and his distribution, but the former Swindon Town keeper coped well, clearing altering his kicking style in order to combat the weather.

Vigouroux also made some key saves in the first half, getting down well to some low strikes, but the highlight of those was a swerving strike by Charlie Lakin from the edge of the area, which the Chilean did well to tip aside.

Perhapas marginally against the run of play, it was Orient who took the lead in the 19th minute. Some good build-up play between Cisse and Josh Wright saw the latter slip in Sotiriou down the right hand side of the box, and the striker fired across Paul Farman into the bottom corner.

The Stevenage keeper should have done better with the strike, getting a leg to the effort but allowing the ball to roll over it on its way in.

Orient improved after this and looked the better of the two sides, but a lack of clear-cut chances meant the game was hanging in the balance for the rest of the half.

Indeed, it almost came back to bite them right of the cusp of half-time when Stevenage won a free-kick on the edge of the area. Thankfully, though, Dean Parrett’s effort deflected narrowly over the bar rather than into the net.

The O’s picked up from where they left off in the second half, looking the more threatening of the two sides.

That could have been undone were it not for an excellent tackle by Marvin Ekpiteta to deny David Parkhouse, but minutes later the visitors managed to double their lead.

Wright’s free-kick from the left sailed all the way to the back post, and Cisse was on hand to poke his first goal for the club into the roof of the net.

Within minutes, the game was effectively made safe by Orient as they notched a third. Sotiriou cut in from the left-hand side and, with his weaker foot, fired into the corner at Farman’s near post.

Embleton’s side continued to pepper the Stevenage goal, with both Wilkinson and Maguire-Drew seeing shots saved by Farman before the latter made way for Johnson, making his debut for the club.

Johnson saw little action in the latter stages of the game, through no fault of his own though as Orient simply looked to play out time with three goals in the bag.

Lee Angol missed a good chance when brought on which would have done his confidence wonders, but in terms of a team performance, it was another well-deserved win for Orient.

The win moves the O’s up to 17th in the table, level on points with Grimsby Town, ahead of next Saturday’s game at home to Macclesfield Town.

Orient line-up: Vigouroux, Ekpiteta, Clay, Wilkinson, Maguire-Drew, Happe, Brophy, Sotiriou, Marsh, Cisse, Wright

Subs: Sargeant, Widdowson, Coulson, Harrold, Angol, Kyprianou, Johnson