Callum Cooke’s late penalty condemned Leyton Orient to a disappointing 1-0 defeat away at Bradford City.

Cooke smashed home with confidence with nine minutes to go after Oliver Crankshaw had been fouled in the penalty area.

Danny Rowe and Crankshaw had earlier seen good second-half chances go begging for City.

Jobi McAnuff had a 25-yard free-kick deflected for a corner as the London outfit threatened first in the 14th minute.

While at the other end, Rowe and Gareth Evans forced saves from Lawrence Vigouroux as Bradford started to take charge.

Daniel Kemp curled just wide of the far post following a rare Orient attack after 30 minutes in an entertaining first half.

Rowe nearly put the hosts ahead when Vigouroux saved his attempted lob following Sam Hornby’s long clearance in the 47th minute.

Evans had a snapshot saved at the near post after 55 minutes before Crankshaw had a similar effort superbly saved by Vigouroux.

But City finally hit the front with nine minutes to go when Cooke rifled into the top corner from 12 yards after Crankshaw was fouled by Adam Thompson.

Ross Embleton’s Orient have now lost ground on the play-off spots after going six games without a win.

Despite a welcome three-game winning spell, without conceding, they have yielded just 12 points from a possible 30.

And Embleton was left frustrated after the contentious penalty decision.

He said: “I saw it as not a penalty. What is difficult to accept is the explanation I’ve been given.

“When I asked at the end, ‘why was it a penalty?Adam Thompson scissored him and fouled him’.

“In my interpretation of the word scissored that would mean he wrapped his legs around him or taken his legs away with a scissor-type action and that didn’t happen.”