Leyton Orient midfielder Dean Cox slammed referee Neil Swarbrick after he missed a blatant handball in Monday’s 3-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Both Swarbrick and his fellow officials waved away Orient’s appeals for a first-half penalty despite the ball clearly striking Richard Stearman’s arm in the box.

The decision came when Orient were trailing by a goal to nil and Cox admitted that he had no idea how the incident was missed.

“It’s a penalty it’s as simple as that. We’ve seen it again and it’s handball. To be fair the referee admitted it second half but it’s no good then,” said Cox.

“There are many occasions that the linesman is meant to be there to help and for me he should see it. How he doesn’t see it is beyond me. He’s down there and about five yards away from the 18-yard-box and he’s missed it. It’s a penalty, simple as that.”

In a cruel twist of fate Wolves doubled their advantage just moments later via Malian International Bakary Sako whose left footed effort went in off the post.

To their credit Orient rallied and peppered the Wolves goal with Carl Ikeme pulling off some brilliant saves towards the end of the first half.

Former Rochdale striker Chris Dagnall thought he had finally halved the deficit just before the break but his effort was ruled out for offside.

The O’s started the second half in much the same fashion and Cox earned his 15th goal of the season and gave the Orient faithful something to cheer about.

But despite dominating the second half Orient were unable to find an equaliser and midfielder James Henry put the game to bed with a superb injury-time strike.

“I don’t think they have been pushed as much as that all season. They know they’ve been in the game and the third goal is a sucker-punch when we’re chasing the game. It was a very close game and if we had taken our chances maybe it could have been a very different outcome,” said Cox.

“I think that the teams that have been watching us ahead of the play-offs no they’re going to be in for a right game. So I don’t think any of them will want to play us.”