Orient set to reward Ling with new deal

Barry Hearn is poised to offer Martin Ling a new contract following Leyton Orient's promising start to the season.

When Ling took over as Orient manager from Paul Brush last year, the club were only one place off the bottom of the league. Thirteen months on and the club are challenging for promotion.

Hearn is impressed by the transformation.

"At the moment I would be an idiot to to say that I'm not very pleased with him," said the Orient chairman.

"He's doing a great job, he's got his team playing football and he's lived within his budget.

"This is the final year of his contract so I have got to sit down with him and think about it, but my gut feeling at the moment is that he is doing a good job.

"I've got to make a decision about him before Christmas because there is no point in getting rid of a manager at the end of the season because the new guy has got no time to blood himself, but results will tell me what I'm going to do over the next couple of weeks."

Ling is also keen to commit to Orient, who take on Dagenham & Redbridge in the first round of the FA Cup tomorrow.