‘The loss means that Orient have leapfrogged Accrington in the table, leaving the Reds in 22nd place’
ball.
The referee was then involved again on 24 minutes when he reduced Accrington to 10 men after showing McConville a straight red card.
McConville was judged to have denied a goalscoring opportunity for the hosts when he pulled Gabin Massey back, with referee Darren Drysdale dismissing the Stanley captain after consulting with his assistant.
Orient tried to capitalise on their man advantage, and they almost went ahead when Callum Kennedy’s free kick was narrowly off target.
Nicky Hunt was the next to try his luck for the home side, but his effort was fired straight at Chapman.
After managing to sustain pressure from Orient, Accrington proved that they were still very much in the match when Cisak had to make a good save to keep out Jordan Clark’s strike.
Coleman’s men started the second half well, dic- tating play and frustrating their opponents, but failing to test Cisak.
Orient’s first major chance of the half came on the hour mark when Nigel Atangana’s dangerous strike was eventually kept out by Chapman.
The hosts did get the ball into the back of the net on 65 minutes though, as Simpson made the breakthrough for his side.
Stanley failed to clear Myles Judd’s ball into the box, allowing Paul McCallum to head down for Simpson, who did the rest by slotting the ball home and making it 1-0.
Accrington almost levelled things up just moments later when John O’Sullivan’s inviting cross was met by Clark, but Cisak denied him, with the Orient goalkeeper also keeping out the rebound from Gornell.
Rommy Boco and Shay McCartan came on for the Reds in the closing stages as they tried to find an equaliser of their team, and McCartan almost managed it when his shot rustled the side netting.
It wasn’t to be though, with Accrington condemned to a 1-0 defeat.