AFC Bournemouth 5 - 0 Leyton Orient
Coca-Cola League One

ORIENT slumped to their heaviest defeat in three years and dropped back into the relegation zone on Saturday when a rampant AFC Bournemouth smashed five goals past their hapless defence.

In a harrowing flashback to their early season performances, the O's conceded a couple of early strikes to their relegation rivals and never recovered.

Former Tottenham man Darren Anderton helped himself to a hat-trick while Marc Wilson and James Hayter also got in on the act to heap further misery on the abysmal O's.

With six minutes on the clock Luke Guttridge, making his first start since joining the club permanently, forced a flying save from home stopper Neil Moss with a low curling shot from the edge of the box.

But four minutes later the Cherries opened the scoring when Wilson fed Marcus Browning in the left channel.  Browning's cross was only headed out to the edge of the box by Adam Chambers, and Wilson was waiting to receive and place an effort past Glyn Garner and into the far corner of the net.

Six minutes later it got worse for the O's when the home side broke through down the left hand side.  The ball fell to Anderton 20 yards from goal and the former England international curled a near-identical effort beyond Garner to make it 2-0.

The Cherries kept up their early pressure and Anderton was again in the thick of things in the 21st minute when he delivered a free-kick from the left that veteran frontman Steve Fletcher headed a foot too high.

And four minutes later only a superb low stop from Garner kept the O's in the game after Matt Lockwood had slipped and lost possession to Anderton.  He passed to James Hayter, who beat Alton Thelwell and sent in a low shot that threatened to squeeze into the far corner before Garner intervened.

The shots kept flying in and 60 seconds later Jack Cork unleashed an effort from range. Garner had to dive across to tip it behind for a corner.

Orient needed top grab a foothold in the contest and the in-form Jabo Ibehre should have provided them with it on 29 when Guttridge sent him clear.  It was a gilt-edged opportunity, but the O's striker shot too close to Moss and the home keeper was able to save with his legs.

Ibehre also had the O's next effort, running onto Alexander's through ball and drilling over the top from an angle in the 43rd minute, and on the stroke of half time Miller should have done better with a downward header from Lockwood's cross, but the O's reached the break still two down and facing a tall order to salvage anything from the contest in the second period.

And that task was made all but impossible just two minutes after the interval when Anderton lashed home his second following a good run from Hayter that was only partially halted by Brian Saah.

Six minutes later Anderton completed his hat-trick, arriving at the far post to knock home Steve Fletcher's header after Cork had crossed from the right.

The O's needed to limit their hosts to a three-goal winning margin to keep themselves out of the drop zone and they had a chance to get the game back to 4-1 on 67 when Shane Tudor found space on the right to send over a low cross that only just evaded the sliding Matt Lockwood in the middle.

But less than 60 seconds Orient were condemned to sinking into the bottom four for the first time in two months when Hayter raced clear and coolly finished under Garner.

Sub Brett Pitman forced another fine save from Garner shortly afterwards as Bournemouth threatened to rattle up a cricket score.

Former Orient loanee Shaun Cooper also curled an effort just past the post ten minutes from time, while at the other end Gary Alexander - without a goal since the end of December - drew a fingertip save from Moss with a drive from the edge of the box.

Jason Demetriou then shot inches wide as the clock turned down, but the O's couldn't force a consolation to give even a small silver lining to a depressing day.

	AFC BOURNEMOUTH	COCA-COLA LEAGUE 1		LEYTON ORIENT
1	Neil MOSS	Dean Court - 10/2/07		Glyn GARNER	1
2	Neil YOUNG (C)	Ref: Andre Marriner (West Mids)		Matt LOCKWOOD (C)	3
4	Marcus BROWNING	Att: 5,985 (817 away)		Shane TUDOR	7
8	Shaun COOPER	Goals (time):		Gary ALEXANDER	9
10	Steve FLETCHER	Wilson (10)		Justin MILLER	15
14	James HAYTER	Anderton (16, 47, 53)		Luke GUTTRIDGE	16
16	Josh GOWLING	Hayter (68)		Jabo IBEHRE	19
25	Darren ANDERTON YC			Brian SAAH YC	21
28	Warren CUMMINGS			Wayne CORDEN	25
30	Marc WILSON			Adam CHAMBERS	26
34	Jack CORK			Alton THELWELL	27
	SUBSTITUTES	Replaced (time)		SUBSTITUTES
5	Karl BROADHURST		15 (HT)	John MACKIE YC	6
12	Danny HOLLANDS			Glenn MORRIS (GK)	12
24	Gareth STEWART (GK)			Adam TANN	14
26	Brett PITMAN	10 (69)	16 (37)	Jason DEMETRIOU YC	24
36	Bjarni VIDARSSON	30 (61)	19 (63)	James WALKER	28