Leyton Orient bounced back from their late draw against Macclesfield Town on Saturday by beating Mansfield Town 2-1 at home.

James Dayton had the O’s in front at the break before Kelland Watts’ header on the hour levelled things up.

Mansfield left-back Mal Benning provided the crucial goal but at the wrong end as he headed past his own keeper under pressure from Lee Angol.

In a bid to keep things fresh, Ross Embleton made a number of changes from the side that started the draw against Macclesfield at the weekend. Ruel Sotiriou and Marvin Ekpiteta were forced out through injury and were replaced by Danny Johnson and Josh Coulson, while Dayton and Angol also came into the side in place of Jordan Maguire-Drew and Josh Wright.

Mansfield had the ball in the net with only three minutes on the clock when Nicky Maynard brought down a long ball and slotted past Lawrence Vigouroux, but his effort was ruled out for offside.

After that near-miss, Orient got themselves into the game and, after having a penalty appeal for handball turned away, Ouss Cisse fired another warning shot when his effort from distance was deflected wide.

An even better opportunity to take the lead then went begging as the O’s recycled play from Angol’s saved free-kick by swinging it into the area. Dan Happe then volleyed against the post and the ball hit Conor Wilkinson before he could react properly.

Mansfield were forcing Orient to be patient with their rigid defence, but the waiting game paid off for the home side on the stroke of half-time. After passing the ball around the edge of the area for about a minute, Craig Clay sprayed the ball out to Dayton, who managed to squeeze his effort under Bobby Olejnik at the near post.

Orient continued to be the more aggressive of the two sides going forward in the second half and had chances to double their tally, but Cisse volleyed wide when well positioned and Wilkinson was denied a penalty when he felt he was pushed over.

A lapse in concentration then came back to bite the hosts as, on a rare foray forward, Mansfield won a corner which was easily and simply headed home by Watts from an in-swinging delivery.

The Stags were starting to have a bit more joy going forward, but none of their efforts were really providing a test for Orient as both Maynard and Benning had shots comfortably stopped by Vigouroux.

However, it was to be Benning who gifted the lead back to Orient when a cross was floated in by substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew and he headed past his own keeper while under pressure from Angol.

Orient had chances to kill the game off in the latter stages as Maguire-Drew curled over from a free-kick and Clay’s cross in towards Angol was gathered by Olejnik.

Any further goals weren’t needed though, as Orient hung on to make it three games unbeaten.

The win moves the O’s up to 17th in the League Two table, six points clear of Mansfield and only three shy of the top half ahead of this weekend’s trip to play-off hopefuls Cheltenham Town.

Orient line-up: Vigouroux, Coulson, Clay, Wilkinson, Dayton, Happe, Brophy, Angol, Marsh, Cisse, Johnson

Subs: Sargeant, Widdowson, Maguire-Drew, Judd, Kyprianou, Sweeney, Wright