Justin Edinburgh felt Leyton Orient were punished for failing to create enough goal scoring opportunities as the O’s unbeaten start to the season was brought to an end by Sutton United.

In a game of few chances at the Breyer Group Stadium on Saturday, Jonah Ayunga’s low strike just three minutes after the break earnt Sutton a 1-0 win, although substitute Dale Gorman was inches away from securing the O’s a point when his late effort crashed against the bar.

Edinburgh named an unchanged starting line-up for the tenth game running, but there was one change on the bench with Sam Ling replacing the injured Dan Happe.

Joe Widdowson thought he had opened the scoring for the O’s just after the 20 minute mark when he latched on to Jobi McAnuff’s corner, but his close range header was superbly cleared off the line.

Sutton responded through Aaron Drinan, who volleyed Dale Bennett’s cross over the bar, while midfielder Kenny Davis’ free kick on the edge of the area flew just wide of the top corner.

The U’s opened the scoring three minutes after the break when Ayunga was afforded time and space to cut in from the left, and his low effort beat Dean Brill at his near post to hand Paul Doswell’s side the lead.

Orient pushed for an equaliser in the final half-an-hour and they thought they had got back on level terms with two minutes remaining when Gorman sweetly met Josh Koroma’s intelligent pull-back, only for his effort to strike the bar.

Fellow substitute James Alabi also turned wide deep into stoppage time as Orient slipped to their first defeat of the season and head coach Edinburgh cut a frustrated figure at full-time, having seen his side’s record breaking start to the season brought to an end.

Speaking to Leyton Orient’s website, Edinburgh said: “We’re frustrated in the sense of being beaten and not getting something from the game. Not that it was an open game with lots of chances but it was a game where I think we have to come off not being beaten due to the fact that there was very few chances.

“Sutton came to do a job and they did that well. The key for us now is how we react to this and move forward.

“In terms of a reaction, we got it when we made the substitutions. We threw caution to the wind and added an extra attacker but it still didn’t quite go for us and we didn’t create enough.

“I can’t criticise but if we hadn’t of lost then I think we would have been ok and reflected on it and said ‘there wasn’t much in the game.' It was a very tight game and it was very difficult to find momentum.

“Credit to Sutton as they’ve managed the game and I said that before the game as I think they knew how to do things like that.”