NATHAN Byrne questioned referee Gavin Ward’s decision to hand Leyton Orient a second penalty at Brisbane Road on Saturday, claiming Troy Archibald-Henville’s foul on David Mooney actually took place outside the box.

Having fallen behind to a first-half spot-kick, Swindon Town were effectively knocked out of the contest by another penalty seven minutes into the second half, awarded by Ward after Archibald-Henville pulled Mooney down right on the edge of the area.

To the naked eye at the time it appeared as though the offence began outside the box and Byrne reiterated that school of thought post-match, stating that the timing of the goal so early in the second half had a major bearing on the outcome of the game.

“We thought the initial foul was outside the box as well, which was a big argument, and it was a big thing for them to score early in the second half,” he said.

“We knew when we came here that Leyton Orient were doing well and that they’re a strong and direct team.

“We knew what was coming and defended well up until that. It was unlucky we gave away a penalty.

“They’re not there by luck, they’re a strong team and they’ve got a lot of talent. We’re obviously disappointed we’ve not got something out of it.”

Byrne insisted that the Swindon squad were not still suffering the mental after-effects last Monday’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Peterborough United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, as they crashed to their 10th away defeat in the league this season.

“Most of the lads got over it pretty quickly,” he said.

“We wanted to be in the final, we were disappointed at the time and the lads were gutted but we knew we need to keep pushing on in the league, keep battling away and hopefully we can still get into the play-offs.”