THERE was more than just bad habits that refused to go away for Orient on Saturday. There was another former player who returned to his old stomping ground to stick the knife into Geraint Williams’ side and leave them hovering precariously above the League One relegation zone.

Dean Morgan became the second ex-O’s player to take points off his old club this season, after Adam Boyd struck last month to secure victory for Hartlepool.

This time, Morgan came off the bench and it was his excellent turn-and-shot that hauled MK Dons back on level terms, before on-loan West Ham midfielder Nigel Quashie scored his first goal in three years with just a minute left on the clock.

Players are often reluctant to bathe in their own glory against past employers, but there was no sign of such sentiments from Morgan, as he revelled in his moment of genius.

Afterwards, he was visibly delighted to have proved a point, after rejecting Orient’s offer of a contract at the end of his loan spell there last season.

“I wasn’t really appreciated at home,” said Morgan of his time at Brisbane Road. “Everyone thought I was on a million pounds, so it was nice to come here and score.”

What really let Orient down was an inexplicable half-hour lapse that turned an impressive home victory into a defeat that was all too familiar in these parts earlier in the season.

Both Williams and striker Scott McGleish – scorer of the hosts’ goal – admitted it was mistakes akin to an O’s side of old that cost the team dear.

The hitman handed the team a deserved lead after 17 minutes when he rose majestically to head home Sean Thornton’s pinpoint free-kick, after Andros Townsend had been fouled.

For an hour, Orient produced some of the finest football Brisbane Road has witnessed this campaign.

However, when McGleish missed a golden chance to put the game to bed early in the second half, after being put through on goal by the much-improved Ryan Jarvis, the wheels came off.

Morgan’s goal, though expertly taken, owed as much to the defence’s generosity as it did to individual brilliance.

And the second arrived after Luke Summerfield, so impressive throughout, played a suicide ball across the field, which the Dons intercepted and the move ended with the ball in the back of the net.

McGleish summed up the performance afterwards. “Up to an hour it looked like there was just one team in it, after that there was still only one team in it but it was the other way round,” he said. “That’s a worrying factor and we’re disappointed. It’s three points thrown away, never mind one.”

Williams was equally critical, after seeing his team fail to keep a clean sheet for the 13th game in a row. “People say we don’t score enough goals but if you look at the bottom half of the table we have scored enough goals, what we are doing is conceding far too many,” he said. “The best form of defence is attack but we ended up going back to our bad old habits.”