Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn has said that the club will be aiming to win promotion to the Championship next season.

Orient manager Russell Slade was recently offered a two-year contract extension after he guided the League One club to two seventh-placed finishes in three seasons.

Hearn believes that Slade can lead the East London outfit to promotion when the new campaign begins in August.

"Finishing seventh two years out of three, I think we would normally bite peoples arms off at that, so we're now getting a bit ambitious," he told Orient's official website.

"We're now thinking 'okay that's great but what's the next level?' The next level is to try and get into the Championship and that's what we're going to try and do this year."

Orient have not played in the second tier of English football since the 1981-82 season.

Written by
Steven Toplis