Jamie Cureton struck in each half to take his season's tally to 19, while Dean Cox fired a spectacular equaliser for Orient. The victory takes Exeter level on 61 points with Orient and leaves them five points adrift of the final play-off place with four games remaining.
Tisdale said: "I'm delighted we won and relieved that we did enough. I'm just enjoying the result because that's all it was about. It's the sharp end of the season and we do like an important finish to the season.
"We're keeping it alive and the opportunity is there although the play-offs are a long way away. We can do no more than win every game we play and we have done that for the last four games we have played.
"We just have to keep ticking along and see where it takes us. It was difficult because we played against a very good team and it was a good game of football.
"We made a great start to the game, we haven't played that well in the first 10 minutes of a game for a long time."
Source: PA
Source: PA