Leyton Orient put on an excellent dress rehearsal of their FA Trophy final against AFC Fylde by beating their opponents for the Wembley visit 2-0 at home in the National League.

First-half goals from Marvin Ekpiteta and Macauley Bonne were enough to keep Orient at the top of the division and extend their winning run in all competitions to eight games.

Justin Edinburgh made one change for the O’s, with James Brophy coming into the starting 11 for Matt Harrold, who served the first game of his three-match suspension, while James Dayton and Jay Simpson returned to the bench.

After a positive start for the home side which saw them attempt the first shot on target and win themselves a free-kick in a dangerous area, they were let off the hook after four minutes when Dan Happe was shouldered off the ball as he blocked off Danny Rowe’s run, and with Dean Brill out his gaping goal, a shot was deflected wide for a Fylde corner.

That was the only real danger they would experience in the opening half though, and Orient felt that they should have been given the chance to take the lead two minutes later when Josh Koroma was tripped in the box after dancing through the defence, but the referee was unmoved and allowed play to continue.

The home side were beginning to take control of the game and they made the pressure count on 14 minutes – Jobi McAnuff’s drove a corner right onto the head of Ekpiteta, and his powerful downward effort beat Jay Lynch by aid of a slight deflection.

The dominance continued after the opener with both McAnuff and Brophy having efforts blocked, and the duo of Koroma and Bonne up front was looking incredibly dangerous as they provided neat interchanges and bursts of pace.

It was a burst of pace that caused the second goal, but it came instead from Brophy who was brought down in the area, and Bonne stepped up to power the spot-kick into the bottom left corner.

Fylde began to regain some possession towards the end of the half but rarely looked like threatening Brill’s goal. The best opening they had was when Danny Philliskirk made some space for himself, but he blazed his effort high and wide.

The second half was a lot calmer than the first, with the O’s playing with a little less intensity but were by no means any less dominant.

Fylde though created the first chance of the period which saw half-time substitute Ashley Hemmings burst into the box and fire just wide of the top corner.

The O’s responded at the other end with Josh Coulson, the hero from Saturday’s win over AFC Telford United, firing just wide with a snapshot after the visitors failed to clear McAnuff’s free-kick from the right.

Fylde looked marginally more dangerous going forward, and the O’s had to call upon Brill a couple of times to come to their aid, firstly when Walters fizzed in a low effort that the keeper somehow turned over, and then he was in the right place to prevent Ekpiteta volleying a cross into his own net.

The game fizzled out with no real attacking threat from either side, meaning the O’s preserved their two-goal lead until the end, which keeps them atop the league going into Saturday’s trip to Barnet.

Orient team: Brill; Turley, Ekpiteta, Coulson, Happe, Widdowson; McAnuff, Clay; Brophy, Koroma, Bonne

Subs: Sargeant, Dayton, Gorman, Alabi, Simpson

Attendance: 4,696 (74 away)