Just when you thought Crewe were beginning to turn the corner, Leyton Orient arrived in South Cheshire and handed out a harsh lesson of League One reality. Credit to Martin Ling's side though because they were up for this game from the first minute and were determined to get a result to enhance their own chances of escaping from the relegation zone. They buzzed around the Alex and deservedly won 4-0. It could have been a few more too with Craig Easton and Matthew Lockwood both hitting the woodwork. Needless to say, the Londoners enjoyed their afternoon in South Cheshire.

For the Alex fans who left on mass following Shane Tudor's late goal for the visitors, they would have wandered up Gresty Road in a real daze. Was this really the same team that picked up a tremendous 2-0 win at Carlisle United last weekend? It didn't seem like it.

Frenchman Julien Baudet captained the side for the first time after replacing the late withdrawal Ben Rix. The young midfielder pulled up in the pre-match warm up with a suspected hernia, which meant a recall for Ryan Lowe. Michael O'Connor switched into his more familiar role in the centre of the park.

Jon Otsemobor was back on the substitutes bench after a three-week absence, as was experienced midfielder Tony Grant.

Leyton Orient started brightly with the robust striker Gary Alexander testing Ben Williams' reflexes in the opening minutes. The same player then forced the Alex goalkeeper into another save following a Wayne Corden cross.

Crewe were forced onto the back foot early on but we did create two really good openings from crosses. A whipped in cross from Michael O'Connor just evaded the onrushing Varney and Gary Roberts could only direct it into the side netting after throwing himself at the chance. A similar cross from Ryan Lowe just missed out Varney for a second time and then Rodney Jack, who was making a good effort of trying to get into the penalty area.

Before those half chances, Crewe conjured up a good opportunity on six minutes when Varney managed to flick on a long clearance from Paul Bignot. Varney's well-directed header fell invitingly for Rodney Jack to run onto but his final shot was wayward.

Crewe had to rely on full-back Darren Moss twice to make last ditch clearances. He got his head to a cross as Easton was posed to head home at the far post and he was then called upon to deny the physical Jabo Ibehre a clear run at our goal.

At the other end, their were strong appeals for a Crewe penalty, when Varney looked to be upended by the covering Alton Thelwell. It would certainly be interesting to see again on the video but to be fair to Varney he didn't appeal too fervently.

The back four were coping pretty well with the Leyton Orient crosses going into our penalty area. At times, we were a little frantic in our clearances and we tended to concede a number of needless corners for little reason. Easton struck the top of the bar square on following a Tudor cross, but in fairness Williams had that one well covered.

The hardworking Varney continued to put himself about and after forcing keeper Glyn Garner into a rash clearance, Ryan Lowe couldn't quite get his shot on target from around 35 yards out.

From a free-kick, Jack thumped his shot into the floor and off a stray Orient leg but Garner was well placed to make a comfortable save. Crewe had begun to impose themselves a lot more on the play, with Lowe driving a shot wide and Baudet becoming more of a threat from set-plays.

Therefore, it was a little bit against the run of the play when Orient took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Tudor cashed down a long pass into the challenge before serving up a pass to Matthew Lockwood. His low drove was spilt by Ben Williams inside his six-yard box and Adam Chambers was there to take full advantage. Williams knows he should have done better with it and because of his slight handling error, a fairly even first-half saw the visitors handed a major boost.

Orient came out in the second period looking to double their advantage early doors. Lockwood wasted an early free-kick after Jack had been penalised for colliding with Chambers on the edge of our box.

Billy Jones was also called into action soon after to deny Ibhere a clear run at our keeper. In the early exchanges of the second half, Crewe were finding it increasingly difficult to make inroads into the Orient half and it was no great surprise when Martin Ling's side went further ahead on 52 minutes. Alexander did superbly well, beating Jones to possession before sending over a superb cross that was just waiting to be smacked home at the far post by the former Port Vale man Wayne Corden.

Dario Gradi then elected to make an almost immediate double substitution. Lee Matthews and Michael Higdon came on for Jack and David Vaughan. Luke Varney moved over to the left wing, as Crewe tried to get some more joy off of their more physical front two.

Almost instantly, Varney had a opportunity following a deep cross from Lowe, but instead of trying to go for goal himself, his tried to look instead for the supportive Higdon. In the end, his tame header turned into neither.

At this stage, Crewe were very much in the game and if we could have pulled one back then we could have salvaged something from the game. Arguably, our best chance of the half came another via free-kick. In a similar fashion, which resulted in our first goal at Brunton Park last weekend, O'Connor picked out Baudet but on this occasion his firm header only dropped onto the top of Garner's net.

The visitors were fairly impressive throughout though and they seemed to always ask questions of our rearguard with their forceful running. Some of their final shot were rather wayward to say the least, but I'm sure Ling and his team won't mind that on their jou0rney south this evening.

Then on 67 minutes, Crewe crucified themselves with a woeful piece of defending. There didn't seem much danger on as Baudet tried to usher back possession to his goalkeeper, but a moment's hesitation from Williams with his clearance allowed Ibehre to nick in and score probably the easiest goal of his career. It was a dreadful mistake and there was no coming back from that.

With Crewe out on the contest, Dario elected to take off Michael O'Connor, before he let his emotions get the better of him, but the introduction of Grant did not have the decided effect either. The former Everton midfielder looked like a player, who had missed a lot of matches and a lot of training. Lacking match fitness, he didn't want to keep possession for too long and that played a major part in us conceding a late fourth.

Grant elected to roll possession into the overlapping Paul Bignot close to the centre circle, but with too many Orient players around him, it was no surprise that he was caught in possession, which in turn allowed Tudor to race into space and fire past Williams at his near post. That was the cue for a mass exodus.