After appearing to book their spot in the last-four of the FA Trophy, the hosts let a three-goal lead slip against the Heed to force a Tuesday night replay

Justin Edinburgh was at a loss to explain how Leyton Orient had thrown away a three-goal lead in the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy to Gateshead, but accepted full responsibility for the result.

The O’s were cruising into the last four when Josh Coulson made it 3-0 in the 57th minute after earlier stunning strikes from Josh Koroma and Ebou Adams.

A double Gateshead substitution just after Orient’s third proved to be pivotal with Heed boss Steve Watson introducing Danny Johnson and Rees Greenwood.

Johnson bagged a brace while Greenwood set up Richard Peniket’s 90th minute leveller to force a replay on Tuesday night at the International Stadium where minus temperatures and snow is expected.

Edinburgh said: “We shouldn’t be worrying about the weather because we shouldn’t be going there, but we are and I can’t tell you how disappointed I am.

“We have to accept it and we have spoken about it in the dressing room, so we have to accept the responsibility. I do and the players do and we have to show a reaction to the disappointing end to what was a very bright start to the game.”

The Orient boss was quizzed about what went wrong and admitted his players perhaps got complacent.

He added: “If I had the answer I wouldn’t have allowed it to happen. Momentum is important and we became a little bit complacent and perhaps thought we were through.

“Once they got that first goal, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how good you think you are, you can’t always turn the tide around.

“Credit to Gateshead. They had no fear and they were out of the competition at one stage so it was difficult, but we have seen games out, the last two at 1-0, so we should have seen this out at 3-0.”

Edinburgh was forced to bring off the influential Adams in the 73rd minute, but the O’s boss admitted he was planning to make the change anyway before the midfielder appeared to injury his groin.

“Ebou was a doubt for today so we had a mindset of having him for an hour and it should have been enough, but we have enough quality in this squad to be able to replace that,” said Orient’s head coach.

“It’s not just about one player. It’s about responsibility as a collective and collectively we haven’t seen this game out.”