Colchester United have beaten Leyton Orient for a second win in four days

Early goals from Kwame Poku and Ryan Jackson got the game going, but Conor Wilkinson did get a goal back at the end of the first half.

The second half was a dogged affair, but the O's couldn't get an equaliser and the U's ran out 2-1 winners.

In the past couple of matches, the U’s had been second best in the opening minutes, but they put that right in some fashion.

There were less than three minutes on the clock when they took the lead with Kwame Poku scoring his first ever league goal in his first home start for the U’s.

Theo Robinson cleverly turned his man on the right and drove forward before spotting the youngster making a far post run.

Poku looked intent on getting good contact on his shot, and beat Dean Brill via a deflection to open the scoring.

Two minutes later, Robinson got into a shooting position himself, but didn’t make good contact and it was a straight forward save for Brill.

All the play in the early stages was heading towards the visiting goal, and Poku maybe should have doubled the lead as early as the fifth minute.

Another low ball found him in a similar position to his goal, but the shot this time was easily fielded by the O’s keeper.

Gradually, the visitors did start to get a foothold in the game, but Dean Gerken was untroubled when balls were played into the box.

The U’s were always dangerous going the other way though, and did double the lead just before the half hour mark.

There was a bit of controversy leading up to the goal, with the O’s bench thinking the ball hadn’t crossed the line for a U’s throw.

The ball was quickly transferred to the right hand side, and after setting the ball up onto his right foot, Jackson hit an unstoppable shot.

It surprised a number of fans around the stadium, but more importantly it surprised Brill as it whistled past him into the top corner.

It could have been three a couple of minutes later, but Tom Eastman’s toed volley went narrowly wide of the target.

The clock was ticking down to the half time break when a mix-up between Eastman and Gerken led to the lead being halved.

Gerken wasn’t sure if the touch from the U’s defender would have been deemed a back pass so didn’t pick it up, but the ball got under his feet.

It spun away from him, and Wilkinson had the easy task of putting it into the empty net to make it 2-1 at the break.

The expected pressure from the O’s at the start of the second half didn’t materialise, and that was mainly down to the U’s continuing to get men forward.

Senior was smothered out before he could get a shot away and Robinson had a shot saved, before the first effort came on the U’s goal.

Louis Dennis volleyed over the bar from a good position, after captain Coulson had won the initial header from a wide free kick.

Tom Lapslie replaced the tiring Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu on sixty nine minutes, and a couple of minutes later saw his side almost restore the two goal advantage.

Senior set up Frank Nouble with a clever reverse pass, but Brill made a great save at the near post to maintain his side’s interest in the game.

That was Senior’s last interest himself, as he was replaced by Paris Cowan-Hall, and five minutes from the end, Luke Norris came on for Robinson.

There were a couple of scares for the U’s in injury time, but Coulson volleyed over and Gerken fell on the ball a yard out after it hit Jackson and went goalwards.

The final whistle went with the winning for the second time in four days, taking them up to tenth place just two points from the Play-Offs.

It’s a break from League Two on Tuesday though, as Tottenham Hotspur visit the JobServe Community Stadium in the Carabao Cup.