Crystal Palace 3 - 2 Leyton Orient
Pontin's Holidays Combination Central Division

ORIENT'S reserves suffered late disappointment on Wednesday night when they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace.

The O's, who trailed 1-0 at the break, improved in the second period and looked set for a point thanks to goals from Efe Echanomi and Jack Page.

But their hopes were dashed by a late, late Charlie Sheringham winner.

Palace enjoyed the better of a low-key first half and Jamie Smith gave them a 35th minute lead after latching onto Ashley Robinson's cross.

Orient came out in the second half with more urgency to their play and they were level on 52 when Echanomi shot under home stopper Scott Flinders.

Three minutes later Jack Page made a break through the Palace midfield and thumped home to give Orient a 2-1 lead.

But Palace were soon level, with Ryan Hall robbing trialist Ahmed Deen before finding the bottom left hand corner of the net with a fine drive.

Chances came and went at both ends, but Palace claimed all three points at the death when Sheringham headed Hall's corner home.

Assistant manager Dean Smith said: "It's disappointing because this is the kind of game we should be winning.

"Crystal Palace didn't have many professionals out there but maybe we made things more difficult than they should have been before half time.

"It was better after the break and we made plenty of chances, so it was disappointing to lose."

Orient: Glenn Morris; Brandon Martin, Sam Oji, Frankie Webb, Ahmed Deen; Jack Page, Solomon Shields (Scott Grange 65), Jason Demetriou, Charlie Daniels; Efe Echanomi, Raphael Sylvester (Bradley Gray 25)