A SIX-GOAL blast from second-bottom Carlisle United on Saturday sent Orient crashing back down to earth following their FA Cup heroics the previous week.

After the O's stunning victory at Portsmouth, nobody could have predicted such an easy ride for Carlisle, but the Cumbrians, and particularly veteran striker Ian Stevens had other ideas.

It was the 32-year old front-man who smashed a first-half hat-trick to leave the O's floundering, and further strikes from Richie Foran and Brendan McGill heaped more woe on the visitors who could only offer a Wayne Gray goal in reply.

Around 150 Orient supporters made the marathon trek north and O's boss Paul Brush offered his apologies to those few hardy souls: "Id like to apologise to our supporters for coming all this way to see that shambles.

"The defeat was just so painful and it was the longest afternoon I have ever known. The basic defending and covering was not there.

"It was unacceptable and we cannot go on like this. We can totally forget about the Cup and start winning League games because we know that we're in a relegation scrap now."

Orient appeared to be riddled with lethargy, and the hosts didn't take long to exploit the visitors' generosity all of one minute and 58 seconds to be precise.

Stevens was the beneficiary, gleefully tucking home from twelve yards after escaping the attentions of Dave McGhee.

Orient had hardly crossed the halfway line before the lead was extended, with Stevens this time turning provider. His square ball found the unmarked Steve Soley ten yards out, and he had no hesitation in drilling the ball into the roof of the net past the static Scott Barrett.

With just thirteen minutes on the clock, Billy Jones' sloppy clearance rebounded off Soley's head into the path of Stevens, who coolly lofted over the advancing Barrett for his second.

The afternoon was rapidly descending into a nightmare, but there was no let-up for the abysmal O's and it took just a further four minutes for Carlisle to ease to a four-goal lead.

A disputed penalty couldn't hide the fact that Orient were being utterly outplayed, and in truth Foran's converted spot-kick gave the scoreline a deserved boost.

Carlisle had already netted their fifth, another Stevens finish in the 32nd minute, before Orient even managed a shot on the Carlisle goal.

With the wind at their backs and United taking their foot off the pedal, Orient did make more of a fight after the interval.

Gray finished neatly in the 72nd minute to grab his fifth goal of his loan spell with the Os, but McGill and Carlisle had the final say, with the youngster finishing off the rout ten minutes later to claim the goal his performance deserved.