Marvin Ekpiteta made his England C debut against Estonia Under-23s last night in familiar surroundings at Brisbane Road.

The centre-back played the full 90 minutes, as Alfie Pavey’s second half penalty secured England a slender 1-0 win in East London.

Ekpiteta was named in the squad after a fine start to the campaign with Orient and partnered Lawrence Maguire, brother of Leicester City star Harry, at centre back.

Estonia thought they had taken the lead on the half hour mark when Kevin Kauber converted Hindrek Ojamaa’s cross, but the striker was flagged for offside.

The Three Lions grew into the game after that chance with Pavey, Robbie Tinkler and James Hardy all coming close to breaking the deadlock.

Pavey was handed a glorious opportunity to hand Paul Fairclough’s men a half-time lead when he capitalised on a mistake from Estonia to race through, but he lacked composure and screwed his effort comfortably wide.

But the Havant and Waterlooville striker would make amends for that miss in the second half, after the Three Lions were awarded a penalty when Maguire was hauled down by Vladamir Avilov inside the area.

Pavey stepped up and calmly slotted his spot-kick into the bottom corner to seal England the win.

Ekpiteta’s attention will now return to Orient and the 22-year-old will be hoping to help the O’s get back to winning ways on home turf when they face Hartlepool United on Saturday.