League One: Port Vale 3 Leyton Orient 0

Two goals in the space of four second half minutes put 10-man Leyton Orient on course for their first away defeat of the season at Port Vale.

Their hopes were not helped by Darius Henderson’s straight red just after the half hour mark, but Adam Yates and Ben Williamson struck in quick succession to put the hosts in control in the second period.

And they sealed the success when O’s skipper Nathan Clarke slotted past Gary Woods to round off a miserable day for the O’s at Vale Park.

The O’s made two changes from the side which won 2-0 at Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday with Clarke and Mathieu Baudry both returning from suspension and making way for Jack Price and Bradley Pritchard.

There was also a place on the bench for Dean Cox following his knee injury, and the O’s started brightly when Henderson’s deflected effort went behind for a corner after just 13 seconds.

But after that the game petered out and there was little action as the early rain disappeared and the sun shone down on Vale Park.

O’s goalkeeper Gary Woods was then forced into a fine save to deny Ryan McGivern’s long-range effort and though Chris Birchall got to the rebound, Clarke cleared off the line.

But then for the third weekend in succession the O’s would be reduced to 10 men when Henderson appeared to elbow Richard Duffy and there was little protest from the striker.

It was now a backs-to-the-wall job for the visitors and McAnuff was the next man on the line to deny Jordan Slew’s header as the half drew to a close.

In the second of four added minutes at the end of the first period the Valiants did have the ball in the back of the net when Slew headed past Woods but the effort was ruled out for offside.

Despite going down to 10 men, the O’s looked promising on the attack at the start of the second half, forcing several early corners.

But Robert Page’s side would go closest of all when half-time substitute Dany N’Guessan’s headed ball back into the box was met by Birchall, however, his header was wide of Woods’ goal.

Scott Cuthbert almost put into his own net from Marshall’s ball in, but on 64 minutes and the Valiants were in front when the ball fell to Adam Yates just outside the box and he curled a left-footed effort into the top corner.

Cox and Pritchard were brought on straight away but by the time they could make an impact they were 2-0 down as the ball found its way to Williamson and he shot low across goal past Woods to put the hosts on course for victory.

The O’s kept plugging away but there was little they could do and their woes increased when Michael O’Connor’s free-kick was put past Woods by Clarke to seal an easy win for the Valiants.

Port Vale: Neal, Dickinson (Streete 46), Yates, McGivern, Duffy, Birchall, Williamson, Lines, O’Connor, Marshall (Dodds 86), Slew (N’Guessan 46) .

Unused substitutes: Johnson, Daniel, Brown, Veseli.

Leyton Orient: Woods, Omozusi, Lowry, Clarke, Cuthbert, Simpson (Cox 65), Baudry, Bartley, McAnuff (Pritchard 65), Dagnall (Batt 76), Henderson.

Unused substitutes: Lee, Kashket, Grainger, Ling.

Attendance: 4,773 (324 Leyton Orient fans)