Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton was lost for words as they were not given a penalty in the dying stages for a handball as they lost 3-2 to Grimsby Town.

A 90th minute penalty from the visitors Montel Gibbon secured the three points while the O’s had their own penalty shout waved away shortly after at Brisbane Road.

Boss Embleton was keen to not make it an excuse for his side who did find the net twice thanks to Conor Wilkinson and substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew.

“I haven’t watched the Grimsby penalty back, so I would be very unclear in terms of saying it was or it wasn’t a penalty, I can only go on the reaction of my players and what I’ve been told,” Embleton said.

“Craig Clay was convinced that he touched the ball and won the ball, so I can only go on that, and it looked as though he did but wow the second one, I’m close to speechless.

“What I won’t do is make an excuse for the fact that we got beat totally with the penalty, I think we deserved to get back into the game and with the second-half performance we deserved to get a point from the game.

“We let in two goals that we’ve addressed, talked about, and tried to become better at. We’re conceding too many goals, which isn’t giving us the opportunity, and then we have to put in an absolute unbelievable second-half performance to get anything from the game.

“To answer your question, wow, and let’s get it right it’s going to go away, they’ll talk about it, and we’ll get no recognition and the same things carry on happening.”

Embleton also revealed what the referee and Grimsby Town manager Ian Holloaway said to him following the final whistle.

“The defenders arms were in a natural position, they weren’t, Ian Holloway honestly what a man. I spoke to him a few times over the Covid-19 lockdown that we both went through and he has been an incredible support to me and I would like to say the same.

“As we walked off the pitch there he says you ruined the young man because it’s a blatant penalty. It’s easy to say it when you’ve won a game of football, but when you’ve got that, and the Grimsby players are walking off the pitch laughing and pretty much apologising tell you the truth.”