Macauley Bonne notched his twelfth of the season to earn Leyton Orient a point at Eastleigh on Tuesday night.

The 23-year-old struck with 25 minutes remaining to cancel out Josh Hare’s opener to earn Justin Edinburgh’s side a 1-1 draw.

Despite Bonne’s strike, wins for both Salford City and Wrexham saw Orient drop back down to third place in the National League, just days after they returned to the top of the table with a 4-0 win over Havant and Waterlooville.

Edinburgh was forced to make one change to the side which convincingly beat the Hawks on Saturday, as Sam Ling was unable to recover from the injury which forced him off mid-way through the second half at the Breyer Group Stadium.

James Brophy replaced the 22-year-old at left-back with Joe Widdowson suspended and there was also a return for striker Matt Harrold on the bench.

A minute’s silence was observed before the game to commemorate Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who was tragically killed at the weekend after his helicopter crashed just moments after taking off from the King Power Stadium.

Following their bright start against Havant and Waterlooville, Orient thought they had repeated the trick against Eastleigh as Josh Koroma had the ball in the back of the net after eight minutes, but his close-range header was ruled out for offside.

The O’s continued on the front foot and Charlie Lee almost scored his second goal in two games when he was first to Jobi McAnuff’s corner, only for his header to be cleared off the line by an Eastleigh defender.

Orient would be punished for those missed chances, as Eastleigh took the lead against the run of play with ten minutes of the first half remaining, as Hare ghosted in at the far post to head home Mark Yeates’ corner.

That goal gave the hosts momentum and they came close to adding a second on two occasions following the restart.

Danny Hollands’ header whistled just past the post seconds after the restart and the Eastleigh midfielder came close again on the hour mark, when he fired wide of the target after good work from Hare.

But the O’s wouldn’t be denied and they got back on level terms with 25 minutes remaining. Myles Judd did well to beat his man down the right before whipping in a low cross and Bonne got in front of his marker to divert the ball past Max Stryjek to convert his twelfth of the season.

The O’s striker could have had a second in a matter of minutes as he rose highest to meet James Dayton’s cross, but his header cleared the crossbar.

It was Bonne, though, who almost snatched a late winner as his header from a McAnuff corner was clawed off the line by Stryjek, just moments after substitute Harrold had seen an effort cleared.

But try as they might, Edinburgh’s side were unable to find that elusive winner in the closing stages, meaning they dropped back down to third place in the table following Salford’s win at Barnet and Wrexham’s narrow victory over Hartlepool United.

Eastleigh: Stryjek (GK), Hare, Green, Boyce, Wynter, Gobern (Jones 6), Miley (Zebroski 85), Hollands (C), Yeates, Williamson, McCallum.

Subs (Not used): Flintney, Dennett, Bearwish.

Booked: Hollands (52), McCallum.

Orient: Brill (GK), Judd, Ekpiteta, Coulson, Brophy, Dayton (Harrold, 82), Lee, Clay, McAnuff ©, Bonne, Koroma.

Subs (Not used): Sargeant (GK), Happe, Gorman, Alabi.

Booked: Lee (45+2), Judd (88).

Referee: James Oldham