Orient boss watched side concede late on to London rivals after John Marquis had earned a red card in the 58th minute at Brisbane Road

Leyton Orient head coach Ian Hendon praised the defensive performance of his players, but admitted John Marquis should have been more responsible during the 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon.

Jay Simpson put the hosts ahead at Brisbane Road with his 15th goal of the campaign and that was how it remained at half time.

But Millwall loanee Marquis was sent off for a second yellow card in the 58th minute and it gave the O’s an uphill task for the rest of the second period.

Eventually the pressure from the Dons brought them some reward as Adebayo Akinfenwa headed in the equaliser with 10 minutes remaining and that was how it finished.

Hendon said: “It was a great goal by Jay. John got in between the lines, turned and slipped the ball down the side and it was a great finish by Jay and that’s what he does.

“There wasn’t a lot after that to be honest. I have got to give credit to Wimbledon, they’ve come here and worked hard. Towards the end of the first half we were camped in a bit, but I don’t really think Alex Cisak has had too much to do.

“They had a few set plays and balls in the box, but I thought the boys at the back dealt with that quite well. We went in at half time, had a game plan of what we were going to do.

“We would change it after 10 minutes if we didn’t get back to where we wanted to be and obviously we had the sending off so it went to pot.”

Hendon made the decision to bring off Ollie Palmer and replace him with captain Mathieu Baudry in the 56th minute.

But minutes after the substitution Marquis picked up a caution for catching Wimbledon defender Paul Robinson a little bit late.

Referee Darren Handley got out his red card, which had seemed inevitable after the official decided to hand out a succession of bookings during the first period for tackles that didn’t seem too unfair.

The Orient boss didn’t want to be drawn on the performance of Handley however and instead praised the effort of his team after they went down to 10 men.

“You know what everyone in the ground has sat here and watched the game today so I am not going to get myself in any trouble by speaking about the referee. I have got my opinion as has Neal Ardley so I will leave it there,” said Hendon.

“We were one nil up and we defended well. We put Matty on because we knew it would be an aerial bombardment. We were talking about changing it and sticking another one up at one nil to try and relieve a bit of pressure, but Alex hadn’t had a save to make at that point.

“Then he had the one he pushed over and not long after they scored, but I have to give credit to the players. They were under a huge amount of pressure and they defended very well.”

Hendon explained why he brought Palmer and Simpson off, revealing League Two’s top goalscorer was knackered.

Orient’s head coach also said he had spoken to Marquis before making the first substitution of the game and was disappointed with the Millwall loanee.

“The sending off came just after we had taken Ollie off so I have to trust my players when they are out there on yellow cards,” added Hendon.

“I spoke to John and he shouldn’t be making those challenges. He just needs to stay on his feet and not get involved and give the referee any chance of booking him again.

“Jay was dead on his feet out there and that is the reason for that substitution. We put Blair on to go and give us some legs and put pressure on Wimbledon’s back four. That was the reason for that decision. Jay was up there a lot on his own so he was knackered.”