Dickov: Display merited better

A WORD IN YOUR EAR . . . the fourth official talks to Athletic boss Paul Dickov.

PAUL Dickov felt his side deserved a point at Orient and was “gutted” that they didn’t get one.

A solid display, particularly after the half-time break, restricted the in-form home team mainly to pot-shots at goal as debutant centre-back James Tarkowski excelled.

Ben Amos made an excellent first-half stop from Dean Cox, but he stood no chance with a late long-range thunderbolt from Paul-Jose Mpoku which ensured a sixth defeat in seven games for Athletic.

At the other end, Filipe Morais drew shouts for a penalty on a day when Dickov felt his team didn’t get the rub of the green.

“I feel for the boys, I really do,” said Dickov, who withdrew midfielder Dean Furman from the action after an hour for fear that erratic referee Rob Lewis may hand him a second yellow card.

“I felt that with the chances they had, apart from Kieran Lee’s slip in the first half, we kept them long-range.

“They are the form team in the country. We defended excellently and when we got the ball to Filipe Morais he caused them all sorts of problems.

“As long as we keep believing we are doing the right things, the form and confidence will come back.

“We keep going now, but we didn’t deserve that.

“We worked ever so hard. We talked about the players retaining information and they have — they have had a right good go.

“So there are positives. The winning goal moved all over place and went right in the top corner. As the game has gone on, you are happy that they are hitting long-range shots from there and we were pushing to get a goal ourselves.

“I am disappointed, because Filipe has done his little flip-flop trick in the box and it hit their boy’s hand.

“It is a penalty kick and some of the referee’s decisions totally baffled me.”

Dickov singled out Tarkowski for praise, commenting that the young defender’s effort and attitude in training and for the reserves had earned him a surprise first senior start.

“We knew the big man had that in him,” added Dickov. “He was excellent. We have had him earmarked to come into the team for a little while and felt this was the right time.

“He came in and was dominant and gave a man’s performance as an 18-year-old kid.

“It is credit to him because off the pitch he wants to learn. He is a good, grounded lad.

“If we didn’t think he could handle it, we wouldn’t have put him in there.”

Orient manager Russell Slade felt his late changes had a decisive impact on the result.

“I thought we created enough chances to win the match, but to be honest their goalkeeper (Ben Amos) made a couple of decent saves,” Slade said.

“It was a bit scrappy in the second half, but fortunately for us, we made some substitutions and they paid off.”