Three more points from a fifth victory in seven unbeaten games came without Leyton Orient having to hit top gear said manager Richie Wellens.

The O's beat Carlisle United 3-2 at Brisbane Road with two late first half goals from Shaq Forde and then a 58th minute winner from Ruel Sotiriou.

Carlisle had taken the lead through Josh Vela but their second was via a stoppage time penalty from Sean Maguire.

The victory leaves Orient ninth in the table but 10 points behind the play-off places - and then will have to finish the season without striker Dan Agyei.

Newham Recorder: Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens. Picture: TGS PHOTOLeyton Orient manager Richie Wellens. Picture: TGS PHOTO (Image: TGS Photo)

"We’ll be without Dan now for the season because of injury," said Wellens.

"We started the game well and then probably for a 20-minute period, we started to play backwards and took too many touches.

"Then we pushed our full-backs much higher and they couldn’t really deal with it.

"To get a second goal just before half-time was a big bonus but apart from Ruel’s goal in the second half, it became a bit of a nothing game.

"We became a bit sloppy and I was disappointed to concede the penalty in the last minute.

"Ruel’s press is really good and I thought he was brilliant in the first half getting into key positions.

"Shaq Forde has a lot of variety he can score with both feet and we will need both between now and the end of the season.

"Overall it’s a good day but I don’t think we had to reach our best levels to get the three points."

The Cumbrians stunned their hosts before slipping to a fifth straight defeat.

Against the run of play, they went ahead after 21 minutes when an intended clearance by Omar Beckles struck Josh Vela and cannoned into the net.

Forde turned things round though, the first after a sublime pass from George Moncur after 40 minutes, drilling his shot wide of goalkeeper Harry Lewis from the edge of the box.

His second came four minutes into first-half stoppage-time when Jordan Brown flicked on a Theo Archibald corner and Forde nodded into the net from close range for his eighth of the campaign.

The outcome was sealed in the 57th minutes when Archibald made a quick break out of defence and slipped in Sotiriou to score.

Carlisle manager Paul Simpson admits his side are in trouble.

He said: "We started bright enough and pressed them okay which is where our goal came from but their second goal just before half time has absolutely knocked the stuffing out of us.

"I thought it was a foul on Ben Barclay and so to go 2-1 down just before the break when we didn’t deserve that was a bit unfair on us.

"The third goal was a really poor one to give away. We need to be a bit nastier and street wise to keep a foothold in the game and learn the things that Orient done well .

“This was always going to be a tough game but the truth of it is we’re in serious trouble and this was the day we needed to start getting wins.

"We let ourselves down with quality."