Leyton Orient 2 MK Dons 1 match report: Happy Russell Slade hails another Os win

League One leaders continue their unbeaten start to the season with an energetic display

Orient express: Moses Odubajo celebrates his equaliser, which put the Os on track to keep up their record as the only unbeaten team in the country (Getty)

The exuberant little miracle being wrought in east London goes on. Russell Slade's Leyton Orient, a team of cast-offs and academy products, made it nine wins from 11 matches, and with the other two having been drawn, remain the only unbeaten side in the country.

The sheer energy of the performance in coming from behind to beat Milton Keynes Dons, like all Orient's League One promotion rivals an infinitely better resourced club, delighted their manager.

"Sometimes we over-analyse, we coaches and managers – we were simply the better team," said Slade, who has already been linked with the vacancy at Sheffield United, a position for which he said he had not been approached.

Nor, apparently, does he wish to be. "It wouldn't be a temptation. I love this group and we're in a great position. It would take something very special for me, or I think any of the players, to leave."

The game was preceded by the unveiling of a plaque to the memory of Laurie Cunningham, the wonderfully gifted Orient winger who went on to play for Real Madrid and England before losing his life in a car accident aged just 33.

That the ceremony took place on the 20th anniversary of the Kick It Out campaign against racism in football was no co-incidence. As former team-mates Brendan Batson and Cyrille Regis attested when they addressed the crowd at half-time, Cunningham, a Londoner born and bred, had to put up with prejudice throughout his career.

He would certainly have been proud of the intent with which his old club set about continuing their remarkable start, ripping into their opponents from the outset.

It must have concerned Slade, however, that for all their possession Dons' goalkeeper Ian McLoughlin had not had a single save to make before the visitors took the lead shortly after the half hour.

Patrick Bamford picked up the ball out on the right and was allowed to run along the edge of the penalty area before firing a low left foot shot beyond O's goalkeeper Jamie Jones.

The reaction from Orient was impressive. David Mooney's cross from the right was controlled by Kevin Lisbie, and the former Millwall striker's lay-off was drilled past McLoughlin by Moses Odubajo.

Mooney, with a snap shot inches wide, almost sent the Os in ahead at the break, and the chances continued to come early in the second period. A second goal duly arrived when Mooney played a neat ball inside the Dons' penalty area, which Lisbie stretched to poke past McLoughlin.

Orient almost paid dearly for being caught low on numbers at the back when Izale McLeod, on for Luke Chadwick, beat Jones with a half-volley that smacked against the top of the goalkeeper's bar.

Leyton Orient (4-4-2): Jones; Cuthbert, Baudry, Clarke, Omozusi; Odubajo, James, Cox, Vincelot; Mooney, Lisbie (Batt, 73).

MK Dons (4-4-2): McLoughlin; Otsemobor (Smith, 82), Flanagan, Williams, Lewington; Potter, Gleeson, Powell, Chadwick (McLeod, 69); Carruthers (Baldock, 62), Bamford.

Referee Iain Williamson.