FORMER Tranmere favourite Ben Chorley will have to settle for returning to Prenton Park this weekend as a spectator, rather than at the heart of the Leyton Orient defence.

That’s the price the centre-back must pay for his part in Orient’s remarkable 8-2 comeback victory over Droylsden in the FA Cup this week.

The Londoners were 2-0 down to the non-League side with 13 minutes remainingŠof the second round replay at Brisbane Road on Tuesday night.

Chorley gave Orient a lifeline by converting a penalty and a goal from Jonathon Tahoue took the game into extra-time. Chorley was dismissed for a second bookable offence during the extra half-hour and amidst a flurry of cards,Šeach side finished the game with nine men. But that did not prevent Orient plundering six extra time goals to earn a third-round meeting with Norwich City.

However, Chorley must serve an automatic one-match suspension for the dismissal – and that’s going to be a blow for manager Russell Slade.

The 28-year-old Chorley has been in impressive form for the Londoners, helping to build a recent revival which saw them lose just once in the last seven League One outings.

Slade said recently: “We need 11 Ben Chorley’s when we lose the ball.”

The experienced Slade admitted after Tuesday night’s 10-goal thriller: “Never in my entire management career have I witnessed a game like that. I know the FA Cup can bring many different things to the table, but that was spectacular, in many good and bad ways.

“I’m fed up that every time we play in recent games, we go goals down. That is when we start to climb up the mountain.”