Dion Charles’ late goal won the Sky Bet League One clash for the West Yorkshire side, after Radinio Balker’s own goal had been cancelled out by a Bojan Radulovic equaliser.

Orient head coach Richie Wellens was red carded after the game and Stead felt the reaction of his side after a disappointing first half was pivotal.

He explained: “It was an astonishing finish, when Murray Wallace hits the bar just before the winner, you wonder what might have been. Obviously, jubilant scenes at the end.

“It was a little bit loose in the first half, we spoke about that at half-time, so we nailed that.

“In the second half we were a lot more rugged, we dealt a lot more with the gritty parts of the game, and we ended up finishing the game really strongly.

“It was a little bit basketball-like at times, but we’re at the stage of the season where it’s starting to get to the do-or-die stage.”

The visitors went behind in the 20th minute. A deep cross from Theo Archibald found visiting defender Balker, who headed his attempted clearance past his own goalkeeper Lee Nichols.

However,  Huddersfield equalised right on the stroke of 45 minutes, when Radulovic turned in a Sean Roughan cross from close range.

There was a moment of concern in the 65th minute when Huddersfield substitute George Sabine had to go off the field after a head collision with team-mate Marcus Harness.

With fourteen minutes of stoppage time added, Wallace struck the bar, before Charles struck.

With Wellens unable to do post-match comments due to his dismissal, Orient assistant manager Paul Terry questioned the amount of injury time awarded.

He said “I get the clash of heads, but he was down for eight minutes, so I don’t know where all the extra time comes from anyway.

“But we’ve got to defend that last ball in the box better, we’ve got to be better in those moments. Whether we delay the cross, or pick up properly in the box.

“I thought we were really good in the first half, we were in control of the game, passed the ball, even if we didn’t switch it as much as we could have.

“But in the last five minutes of the first half, the concentration went. We didn’t pick up the cross in the box, and they got an equaliser out of nothing.

“Dom Ballard has got to be better in some of the moments he had, he took too many touches at times.”