Yeovil Town 2 - 1 Leyton Orient
Coca-Cola League One

ORIENT dropped deeper into relegation danger when they fell victim to a late comeback from play-off hopefuls Yeovil Town on Easter Monday.

Martin Ling's men deservedly led at half-time through Ryan Jarvis' first goal in seven games and, in truth, they should have been further ahead after 45 minutes.

But the hosts responded strongly in the second half, eventually forcing the O's to crumble in the final 13 minutes.

Wayne Gray's penalty brought the scores level, and then, with just eight minutes left, John Mackie sliced Arron Davies' cross into his own net to complete the Yeovil turnaround.

Gary Alexander missed a gilt-edged chance in injury time, but Orient couldn't halt the Yeovil tide, eventually falling to a worrying third defeat in a row.

Martin Ling made a raft of changes, both in terms of personnel and approach, with Alton Thelwell playing as an orthadox right back in a 4-4-2 formation.  Adam Chambers lined up on the left hand side of midfield, while Adam Tann was named in the centre of the park.

And Shane Tudor, who stayed on the right wing, had the game's first chance to strike when Chambers cut inside from the left and passed square to the winger, who sidefooted wide from a promising position.

With 13 minutes on the clock, more neat football from the O's created another chance, with Adam Chambers and Alexander combining to feed the ball to Jarvis in the area.  The on loan striker had to take a touch, but he couldn't find the required power in his left-footed shot and home stopper Stephen Mildenhall saved easily.

Yeovil were slow out of the blocks, but former O's loan man Gray came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock on 22 when he stretched to meet Matthew Rose's teasing low cross, poking the ball just an inch too high.

Four minutes later Chris Cohen got up above Aiden Palmer at the far post to send a header over the bar as the promotion-chasing hosts began to stir.

But the O's were the more impressive side in the opening half hour and they opened the scoring on 31 when Alexander's sublime first time ball following a long pass from Thelwell fell right into Jarvis' path.

The O's striker took the ball in his stride and clipped over the advancing Mildenhall's dive to stun the Glovers.

Five minutes later Craig Easton wasted a glorious opportunity to make it two when Alexander cut the ball back to the penalty spot for the waiting midfielder, but he got too much on the shot, sending it harmlessly over the bar.

Another excellent chance went begging four minutes before the interval when the O's again worked the ball well in midfield, with Easton releasing Tudor down the wing.  Alexander was completely unmarked in the centre, but Tudor shanked his cross into the crowd and the danger passed.

Yeovil boss Russell Slade made a double change at the break, taking Marcus Stewart and Lee Morris off in favour of Anthony Barry and Darryl Knights, and Knights - who had a trial with the O's earlier this season - forced a good diving stop from Glyn Garner with a placed effort in the 52nd minute.

Cohen then drilled a shot a yard over the top seven minutes later as the home side began to crank up the pressure.

Orient's ball retention in midfield, a huge factor of their first half success, was suffering and Gray came so close to taking advantage with 20 minutes left to play when he picked up possession, drove at Thelwell and unleashed a shot that Garner touched onto the near post.

The O's could barely get out of their own half and the Glovers chance to level arrived with 13 minutes left on the clock when Nathan Jones' jinking run in the left channel was only halted illegally by Tann's mistimed tackle.

Referee Keith Stroud pointed straight at the spot and Gray confidently dispatched the penalty to Garner's right to draw the scores level.

And disaster struck five minutes later when Davies crossed from the right and Mackie's attempted clearance sliced off his shin and into the top corner.

Alexander forced a low save from Mildenhall with a header from Tudor's corner as Orient tried to hit back, while the same player drilled straight at the Glovers stopper from close range in stoppage time.

But an equaliser was not forthcoming and Orient slipped to their third straight defeat.

	YEOVIL TOWN	COCA-COLA LEAGUE 1		LEYTON ORIENT
1	Stephen MILDENHALL	Huish Park - 9/4/07		Glyn GARNER YC	1
3	Nathan JONES YC	Ref: Keith Stroud (Hants)		John MACKIE (C)	6
4	Terry SKIVERTON (C)	Att: 5,206 (284 away)		Shane TUDOR	7
6	Terrell FORBES	Goals (time):		Craig EASTON YC	8
9	Arron DAVIES	Jarvis (31)		Gary ALEXANDER	9
10	Wayne GRAY	Gray (pen 77)		Ryan JARVIS	10
11	Chris COHEN	Mackie (og 82)		Adam TANN	14
14	Jean-Paul KALALA			Brian SAAH	21
25	Lee MORRIS			Aiden PALMER	23
29	Marcus STEWART			Adam CHAMBERS YC	26
32	Matthew ROSE			Alton THELWELL	27
	SUBSTITUTES	Replaced (time)		SUBSTITUTES
5	Scott GUYETT	9 (89)		Donny BARNARD	2
8	Anthony BARRY	25 (HT)		Glenn MORRIS (GK)	12
15	Peter SWEENEY		10 (77)	Jabo IBEHRE	19
30	Darryl KNIGHTS	29 (HT)	8 (87)	Jason DEMETRIOU	24
33	Adam ROONEY		23 (85)	Wayne CORDEN	25