Liverani unrepentant after red

Fabio Liverani experienced an afternoon he would rather forget after being sent to the stands as Leyton Orient lost 1-0 to Fleetwood.

The Italian was already frustrated after watching his side fall behind immediately after half-time and then had to watch his side unable to show the required guile to prise open a resolute Fleetwood defence. But with his side pressing forward in search of a last-gasp equaliser, his patience finally snapped when Orient's claims for a penalty late in the game were turned down by referee Fred Graham and Liverani's protests got him sent off. After the game, Liverani refused to change his stance regarding the controversial decision. "The outcome has been badly conditioned by the referee's decision," he said. "It was a definite penalty but the referee has got it wrong. I admit that I made a mistake by running on to the pitch to complain, but I think my mistake is smaller than the referee's mistake. "We might also have had a penalty in the first half when a defender was guilty of hand-ball from a Chris Dagnall shot. "The goal was our mistake. We didn't play well in the first half and that was disappointing because I wasn't expecting us to perform like that. "In the second half, apart from those first 30 seconds, we played quite good football in my opinion. "We created chances and didn't give up, they didn't create anything and I think the referee's decision at the end could have cost us an equaliser and a different result. "Football is decided by episodes and so a wrong decision in one episode has cost us a point." Fleetwood had looked the more likely side to break the deadlock in the first period with Stephen Dobie's shot that scraped the crossbar the closest of a number of attempts. However, it took the visitors just 16 seconds of the second half to take the lead. Jamie Proctor fed a pass through to Gareth Evans and with the home defence caught cold, midfielder Evans netted from 15 yards. It was not until the closing stages that Orient mounted a sustained spell of pressure during which time, they had their penalty claims denied when Bradley Pritchard was tripped. The offence appeared to take place in the box but after consulting with an assistant, referee Graham awarded a free-kick just outside the box. That led to Liverani's outburst and his early departure. Fleetwood boss Graham Alexander said: "We were more than solid in the first-half and the football we played and the number of chances we created were superb. We should have gone in at half-time in front. "Maybe the early goal in the second-half with Gaz Evans finishing very well was a bit of pay back for the chances we missed in the first-half. "We came under a bit of pressure at the end as you would expect away from home with a lot of long balls being played into our box. "The boys had to throw tactics out of the window and head the ball and get blocks in. "I thought they did it superbly. We have taken the lead in numerous games this season and we've spoken about how we can control and manage the game from there. "I thought we were doing that really well but when balls are coming in from the halfway line, there's not much you can do about that apart from deal with it, which we did. "I thought we showed a lot of composure on the ball and didn't always try to charge forward and expose ourselves. "We kept the ball really well and used it wisely. We had to defend in the last 15 or 20 minutes but I thought we got the three points we deserved." Asked to comment about the controversial decision late in the game when Orient demanded a penalty, Alexander added: "It was not a penalty, it should have been five seconds before for a foul on Evans, but the referee's not given it and then their lad dived."