Leyton Orient 0 - 2 Northampton Town
Coca-Cola League One

ORIENT were dragged right back into relegation trouble on Saturday when they slipped to a dreadful 2-0 defeat to Northampton Town.

The O's barely mustered an attack worthy of the name before the break and were punished by two goals from their visitors.

First, Simon Cox took advantage of some slack defending to fire Northampton into the lead and then Jason Crowe forced an own goal from Aiden Palmer to give Orient a mountain to climb.

They improved after the break - it couldn't have got any worse - but other than Ryan Jarvis' overhead kick against the crossbar, they never looked like scoring.

Chesterfield's victory over Crewe meant the gap to the drop zone was cut to four points and the Londoners will now face a nervy last few weeks of the campaign.

Northampton moved into the lead with the afternoon's first real moment of attacking threat, Cox drilling a fine left-footed volley past Glyn Garner after David Hunt clipped the ball into a vacant right back position.

The Cobblers seemed to be first to all the loose balls in the opening stages as Orient took time to recover from the blow of losing an early goal.

Gary Alexander had Orient's first effort on goal, shooting straight at visiting keeper Mark Bunn from range in the 27th minute, but in truth it was a scrappy start to the contest - with the O's not at the races.

Seven minutes later Alexander glanced a header wide of the mark following a short corner routine involving Wayne Corden and Jarvis as the hosts threatened to make an improvement.

But that was only a brief revival as Northampton scored the second their first half dominance deserved five minutes before the interval.

Cox was again given all the space he needed to size up his options in the left hand channel, and his ball across goal found Crowe, who forced home via the post and Palmer.

Jarvis tried to lift the home team's spirits with a goalbound shot that was blocked in injury time, but it was clear that Martin Ling had plenty of work to do during the break.

His first piece of action was to employ a 3-4-3 formation with Jabo Ibehre replacing Palmer, and Alexander came close to picking out an O's man with a dangerous low cross in the 57th minute.

At the other end, Ryan Gilligan almost caught Garner out with a neat chip, while Jarvis struck the crossbar with a well-executed overhead kick in the 65th minute.

But Orient, even with their extra attacking players, still failed to create clear chances and Cobblers sub Kenny Deuchar twice came close to sealing the points with ten minutes remaining.  Firstly, he send a back header towards goal that needed a save from Garner following Bunn's monster kick, and then he beat the O's stopper to a cross from the left but flicked his headed effort wide.

A third goal wasn't required, however, as Orient continued to huff and puff without ever looking like blowing the house down and they will now begin to look over their shoulders once again.

	LEYTON ORIENT	COCA-COLA LEAGUE 1		NORTHAMPTON TOWN
1	Glyn GARNER	Brisbane Road 7/4/07		Mark BUNN	13
7	Shane TUDOR	Ref: Andy D'Urso (Essex)		Jason CROWE	2
8	Craig EASTON (C)	Att: 5,459 (769 away)		Andy HOLT	3
9	Gary ALEXANDER	Goals (time):		Mark HUGHES	4
10	Ryan JARVIS	Cox (13)		Chris DOIG (C)	6
15	Justin MILLER	Palmer (og 40)		Andy KIRK	8
21	Brian SAAH			David HUNT	12
23	Aiden PALMER			Bradley JOHNSON	17
25	Wayne CORDEN			Alex PEARCE	19
26	Adam CHAMBERS			Ryan GILLIGAN	28
27	Alton THELWELL			Simon COX	31
	SUBSTITUTES	Replaced (time)		SUBSTITUTES
12	Glenn MORRIS (GK)			Ian TAYLOR	7
14	Adam TANN		8 (65)	Kenny DEUCHAR	9
19	Jabo IBEHRE	23 (HT)		Sean DYCHE	16
20	Derek DUNCAN	25 (68)		Chris DUNN (GK)	21
24	Jason DEMETRIOU	7 (79)	31 (80)	Jordan ROBERTSON	27