Heartbreak for NI pair as Leyton Orient fall short in bid for Championship promotion
A day after Sunderland's Trai Hume and Daniel Ballard experienced the joy of promotion, it was despair for their international team-mates.
Athletic return to the Championship after a gap of five years much to the delight of their 40,000 fans in a crowd of 76,193.
It took 31 minutes for the game to spark into life but the wait was worth it, with a sublimely executed free-kick by Gillesphey breaking the deadlock.
Tyreece Campbell, always a threat, was fouled outside the penalty box and Gillesphey curled his set-piece delivery from 20 yards past the wall and wide of Orient keeper Josh Keeley, who got his fingers to the ball but could not prevent it from nestling into the net.
Keeley is a Republic of Ireland Under-21 international and the son of former Newry goalkeeper, Brendan, and his older brother, Conor, played for Ballymena United and now turns out for Drogheda United.
Orient raised their tempo in the second-half, taking the game to their opponents from the restart. Jack Currie sent in a powerful drive that was deflected for a corner and then League One's leading scorer Charlie Kelman saw his goal-bound drive deflected onto the crossbar.
Then Donley was brought down on the edge of the penalty area but his resultant free-kick was blocked by the resolute Charlton defence.
Keeley kept Orient in the game when he dealt with an effort from Conor Coventry before he tipped a well-struck effort from substitute Chuks Aneke over the bar but Orient kept pushing forward in search of the equaliser.
However, a combination of a lack of quality to their final touch and pass and the well-drilled determined unwavering steely defending of their opponents for whom Lloyd Jones was outstanding proved too much to overcome.
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