The Heed produced a remarkable fightback at Brisbane Road on Saturday and their manager hopes it gives his squad more belief

Gateshead boss Steve Watson was delighted to watch his team fight back from three down at Leyton Orient, but disappointed with the goals they conceded.

The Heed were losing 3-0 with 57 minutes on the clock at Brisbane Road in the last-eight of the FA Trophy.

Impressive strikes from Josh Koroma and Ebou Adams plus Josh Coulson’s close-range header put Justin Edinburgh’s team in control.

Good substitutions by the Heed manager helped turn the tide in east London though, as Danny Johnson scored twice after coming off the bench while fellow replacement Rees Greenwood set up Richard Peniket’s 90th-minute equaliser.

Watson said: “I thought the first two goals for them were very good strikes, but we could have defended them a little bit better.

“Their third goal was really poor because it was a poor free kick to give away and he’s headed it inside our six-yard box so we can probably pick two or three people who could have done better with that, so very disappointed with them.

“We will work on that and then with our goals, they were just three very good footballing goals.

“The first was a great strikers’ goal and a really tough finish, but he made it look easy and that sums our Danny Johnson up.

“He’s a very good finisher and the second was a good run and a great ball and another great finish.

“Then Peniket’s was a proper strikers’ goal with a great ball in from Greenwood and everyone played their part in the game.”

After such a dramatic comeback, Watson is hoping it will give his team a lot of belief going forward for the remainder of the campaign.

He said: “Early on in games you don’t run over teams like we did in the second half. We have to be clever, we have to stay in the game, defend well and keep the ball well.

“We know we are a fit team so in the last half an hour we know we can come on strong and we’ve done it so many times.

“As I say, we need to start a lot better and hopefully this comeback will give them a bit of belief because I can tell them as many times as I can and I can bring people in to tell them like I have, but they need to believe in themselves from within.”