Tuesday’s victory at Braintree Town made it 13 games without defeat this season, which is a new club record

Macauley Bonne says Leyton Orient will not let their standards drop after making a historic start to the season.

The O’s 5-1 win at Braintree Town on Tuesday night made it 13 games without defeat in the 2018/19 National League campaign.

Orient’s previous best start to a league season occurred in the 2013/14 term when they went unbeaten in their first 12 matches, but this squad has bettered those achievements.

Bonne said: “We set our standards to be winning games and playing well, but I don’t think anyone expected to go unbeaten for this long.

“We will not get ahead of ourselves though, we will keep playing how we have been playing and not let it get to our heads.

“Hopefully we can make this run last forever, but we need to just remember although it is good while it lasts, the main thing is keeping our standards high and winning games.”

A clinical second half saw Orient extend their lead at the top of the table by two points following a third consecutive victory.

It took O’s only seven minutes to make the breakthrough at Cressing Road as Bonne netted from the penalty spot.

Braintree levelled thanks to Lyle Della-Verde’s close-range effort in the 23rd minute and seemed on top at that stage.

Justin Edinburgh’s men withstood the storm, though, and went back in front five minutes before the break thanks to Marvin Ekpiteta.

Bonne added: “The message from the gaffer at half time was don’t take your foot off the pedal. We knew we had to step it up a bit.

“We didn’t start as well as we wanted to, but coming to places like Braintree, sometimes you can’t play your best, but as long as you get the result, like we did, that’s all that matters.”

In the second half, it was largely one-way traffic with Josh Koroma adding a third in the 57th minute following a superb 25-yard lob.

Bonne grabbed his second eight minutes later after the Iron failed to deal with Charlie Lee’s long throw and the Orient hitman then claimed the match ball as he raced into the area and fired past Ben Killip to make it 5-1 and spark jubilant scenes.

It ensured O’s incredible away support of 1,134 went home happy after witnessing history at Cressing Road.

The treble for Bonne sent him top of the National League goalscorer charts with nine goals from 13 games and six of them have arrived in his last five matches.

He finished: “I always go out to score as many goals as I can and to get a hat-trick this time makes it even better for me.”