Leyton Orient 0-0 Stevenage: Top two play out goalless draw as O's maintain healthy lead

Paul Smyth went close for Leyton Orient in the early stages in their 0-0 draw against Stevenage

Leyton Orient maintained their seven-point lead at the top of League Two after a keenly contested game against nearest challengers Stevenage ended goalless.

Looking to stretch their advantage at the top into double figures, Orient shrugged off early Stevenage pressure to go close through livewire forwards Charlie Kelman and Paul Smyth.

Stevenage had their best moments early in the second half through a Carl Piergianni header and a Jordan Roberts effort that was well saved by Lawrence Vigouroux.

O's captain Darren Pratley and Daniel Happe spurned excellent chances to find a winner for the hosts but, in truth, neither side were able to produce that vital moment of quality.

The draw ended Orient's four-game winning run but it is now only one defeat in the last 11 league games for Richie Wellens' side, while Steve Evans' men extended their unbeaten run to seven.

On a chilly early afternoon in east London, this eagerly awaited meeting between the top two took a quarter of an hour to warm up, but after a cagey opening it was Orient who found their rhythm first.

Key to that was freeing the pacey forwards Smyth and Kelman and the pair produced electrifying runs that almost broke the deadlock.

First, Kelman broke free from halfway to the edge of the box before seeing his deflected low drive kicked away by the feet of Taye Ashby-Hammond. Smyth then weaved his way almost the length of the field, jinked past three challenges but curled his shot from 18 yards just inches wide.

In between, Jordan Roberts swept Stevenage's best chance of the half straight at Vigouroux from Danny Rose's fizzing cut-back.

Piergianni with a looping header from 12 yards and Roberts, with sharp shot-on-the turn from a clever quick free-kick that was well beaten away by Vigouroux at his near post, helped the visitors back into the match in the second half.

Their revival never threatened to conjure a match-winning goal, though, as the O's, free-flowing in the first half, relied more on their threat from set-pieces in the second.

It should have given them all three points, too, only for Pratley and Hoppe to send free close-range headers right at Ashby-Hammond with the goal at their mercy.