O’s stand-in skipper reflects on the penalty decision which didn’t go their way in the 1-0 home loss to Fleetwood Town.

Leyton Orient defender Scott Cuthbert insists there’s no point in complaining about the late penalty decision which didn’t go their way in the 1-0 home loss to Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

Gareth Evans’ strike in the first minute of the second half put the O’s behind and as they looked for a way back into the game, they were denied a penalty when Bradley Pritchard was brought down in the area by Stephen Crainey.

Instead, a free-kick was given outside the area and Orient are now just outside the League One relegation zone on goal difference.

But despite the late protests, which saw Liverani sent to the stands, Cuthbert feels the O’s can’t blame the officials for the loss.

“It’s hard for the officials. I am not going to sit here and criticise officials,” said Cuthbert.

“They have got hard jobs just like we have. They make mistakes, we make mistakes. Another week that would have been given, but it’s not been given and there’s no point in complaining about it.

“You have just got to dust yourselves down and go again next week.”

Jamie Proctor nodded the ball into the path of Evans to net the early second half opener, and Cuthbert admits Orient paid the price for their poor start to the second period.

“That’s really frustrating from us. We have switched off,” he added.

“We know that they play the long ball to Proctor and get runners off him and we have not matched the runner going into the box and that’s disappointing from us.

“They were getting the ball in the box and they were getting quite a lot of set pieces in. They were quite a threat in behind with the likes of Dobbie and Proctor who were a handful. We had to defend well and I thought we did in the first half.”

The O’s had been out of action since their 3-0 win at Yeovil Town on December 29 – a break of 12 days.

However, the defender believed they cannot use that as a reason for Saturday’s defeat.

“It’s easy to make an excuse when you haven’t won a game,” said Cuthbert.

“At the end of the day we have been unfortunate I feel. We have had a few chances and on another day we could have scored.

“We switched off in the first minute of the second half and we have been punished. And I thought we could have had a penalty as well but there are no point making excuses about too big or small of a gap. It is what it is.”