Capital One Cup third round: Leyton Orient 0 Sheffield United 1

Leyton Orient’s poor run of form at home continued as Michael Higdon’s early strike sealed Sheffield United’s place in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup.

Higdon met Jamie Murphy’s ball in to head past Gary Woods, but once again it was a case of the O’s struggling to break down an opposing team at Brisbane Road for the fourth game in succession.

Slade made four changes as in came Mathieu Baudry, Michael Petrasso, Jay Simpson and David Mooney, while Shane Lowry, Dean Cox, Chris Dagnall and Darius Henderson went out.

But unlike Saturday at Scunthorpe, it was the worst possible start from the O’s as Murphy’s left wing cross found an unmarked Higdon in the box and his second minute header beat Woods in the home goal.

The sloppy opening continued for the hosts as Murphy almost added a second two minutes later when he ran down on goal and his shot was just over Woods’ bar.

The O’s did regroup from that moment on, but they definitely left themselves plenty of work to do.

Jobi McAnuff warmed the hands of Blades goalkeeper Mark Howard, and that sparked a revival for Russell Slade’s side.

But like the season as a whole, the O’s failed to real test their South Yorkshire rivals in the final third despite having plenty of the ball.

And dangerman Murphy was in the action again as he jinked his way in off the left and shot goalwards only for Woods to hold the effort.

The hosts certainly had a lot of the possession once again, but even when they interlinked well going forward they were let down by the final delivery.

That was evident in the closing stages of the opening period when Mooney, Simpson and McAnuff broke from a Blades corner.

Simpson feed McAnuff but his wayward delivery went behind for a goal kick, and that summed up Orient’s season at Brisbane Road.

No changes were made at the start of the second half and again neither side were creating too much to cause either goalkeeper any bother.

But the O’s response almost came from the unlikeliest of sources as left back Elliot Omozusi found space 25 yards out, but his fierce effort took a deflection on the way to striking the post.

It was simply not clicking for the O’s in front of goal, and Omozusi once again tried his luck from range, however it was straight at Howard.

Up the other end Woods gathered a glancing header from substitute Chris Porter after a teasing ball in from Craig Alcock.

Orient simply didn’t look like scoring as the game entered the final few minutes.

Four minutes stoppage time was awarded and the O’s best chance of the game came in the closing seconds as Pritchard’s ball in from the right found Vincelot, the hero of the last round at Aston Villa, but this time he headed over the bar and that was it for the O’s.

Leyton Orient (4-4-2): Woods; Cuthbert (Pritchard 12), Baudry, Clarke, Omozusi; McAnuff, James, Vincelot, Petrasso (Cox 63); Mooney (Henderson 69), Simpson.

Unused substitutes: Batt, Bartley, Dagnall, Grainger.

Sheffield United: Howard, Alcock, Harris, Wallace (Doyle 68), Flynn, Murphy, McGinn, Collins, McGahey, Higdon (Porter 78), Reed.

Unused substitutes: Scougall, McNulty, Davies, , McEveley, Turner.

Attendance: 3,223 (715 away)