Yeovil Town 0 - 1 Leyton Orient
Coca-Cola League One
ADAM BOYD bagged his fifth goal of the season to propel Orient to their third successive away win on Saturday.
Boyd's 57th minute strike was enough to settle a tightly-contested clash between the teams first and fourth in League One.
Orient produced a classic awayday performance, soaking up Yeovil possession and pressure before striking a dagger to home hearts with their second half goal.
Martin Ling's men looked sound defensively once more as they kept their fifth clean sheet of the season and moved three points clear at the top.
Boyd had home stopper Steve Mildenhall worried with a seventh minute chip, but the ball dropped over the crossbar with the former Grimsby custodian backpedalling hurriedly.
But it was Yeovil who started the game as the more threatening team and Stuart Nelson had to be in command of his area to claim a couple of dangerous early crosses.
Orient survived this period without undue alarm, though, and began to put together good passages of possession themselves.
WIth 29 minutes on the clock, Lloyd Owusu headed Matthew Rose's cross over the top with Alton Thelwell applying the pressure on the former Brentford striker.
At the other end, Tamika Mkandawire went close for the O's, controlling a lofted ball from Sean Thornton before volleying wide of the near post on the turn.
In truth, both sides were doing a good job of cancelling each other out and it came as no surprise that neither goal was breached before the break.
Yeovil threatened at the start of the second period, with Owusu outmuscling Thelwell in the right channel to power towards the by-line. His low cross was intercepted by Paul Terry, but the ball fell to Rose, whose shot sailed harmlessly over the crossbar.
Six minutes after the break, Owusu fed Paul Warne on the edge of the box and his low drive was well held by Nelson at the near post.
But Orient hit their hosts with a sucker punch on 57 when Melligan cut in from the right flank to collect a pass from Thornton in the middle of the park. He passed to Boyd on the left, and the O's striker squared up his man before lashing past Mildenhall at the near post.
Yeovil were handed a further blow on the hour when Mildenhall went down with an injury. With no subsititute goalkeeper to call upon, home boss Russell Slade was forced to put central defender Terry Skiverton between the sticks.
However, Orient struggled to put the replacement stopper under pressure and Nelson had to show good handling to stop Scott Guyett's header with three minutes left to play.
Six minutes of stoppage time were signalled, and in the second of those, Tamika Mkandawire had to make a super last ditch tackle to deny Warne.
Boyd struck the outside of the post at the other end with Skiverton well out of position and that proved to be the last chance as Orient registered yet another away win.
Yeovil Town: Mildenhall (Skiverton 63); Rose (Hughes 82), Forbes, Guyett, N Jones (Domoraud 71); Peltier, R Jones, Barry; Stewart; Owusu, Warne
Subs: Lynch, Knights
Booked: N Jones, Warne, Stewart, Barry
Leyton Orient: Nelson; Terry, Thelwell, Mkandawire, Palmer; Melligan (Oji 90), Chambers, Thornton, Corden; Gray (Echanomi 89), Boyd
Subs: Daniels, Morris (GK), Demetriou
Goal: Boyd (57)
Booked: Melligan
Referee: Dean Whitestone (Northants)
Attendance: 5,217 (368 away)
