OVER the course of Orient's thrilling 2005/06 campaign Martin Ling often stated his belief that the promotion race would go down to the wire, but even he could not have foreseen the dramatic finale at the Kassam Stadium where Lee Steele's 95th minute winner took the O's up automatically for the first time in 36 years.

The O's boss was forced to throw caution to the wind as 90 minutes of topsy-turvy emotion came to its conclusion and he was rewarded with a double dose of joy - all within 30 seconds.

First news filtered through that Northampton had levelled at Grimsby and then the O's made absolutely certain of their fate thanks to Steele's strike.

And a delighted Ling was immensely proud to have led the club out of the basement after an 11-year stay.

He said: "The way it happened was phenomenal - the great cheer goes up that my good friend Colin Calderwood has done me a favour and got an equaliser at Grimsby so we started going mad and then for Lee Steele to put that winning goal in - you couldn't write a better script.

"We had a phone on the bench so when we got the message that Grimsby had scored everyone was looking dejected - at 2-2 I really thought the day had passed us by and we weren't going to get what we deserved after a long, hard season.

"But then there was that final twist of fate."

Ling revealed just how much promotion meant to him after his ten years at the club in various roles had only yielded a couple of play-off disappointments.

He continued: "I've been here ten years and it's much my club as anyone else's. I've been involved as a player, youth team coach, assistant and manager and I've got such an affinity to the club.

"It's the first automatic promotion for 36 years so we're going to go down in history but let's enjoy the moment for now and see where we go next year.

"I've got another year on my contract and I'm Leyton Orient through and through - I want to take us into the Championship rather than go into that league with another club."

Steele and Gary Alexander, both without a goal since January, netted two of Orient's three crucial goals and their manager was delighted that the pair returned to form at just the right time.

"Both Gary and Lee are quality players," Ling continued. "Gary's gone an awfully long time without scoring but they did superbly today and are back on song.

"They'll be two of four strikers next year fighting for those spots with Connor and Ibehre and that's a great situation to have.

"I told the players at half time to be calm and keep passing the ball because we were better than them when we retained possession.

"We're always a better team in the second half because the game starts to stretch and when that happens we've got good enough players to get round the opposition.

"Their situation played into our hands because they had five men up front and only ten on the pitch.  We had five up front ourselves and it's nice to come here and win.

"I feel sorry for Oxford but someone had to suffer and it just happened to be them today."

Ling's ethos of instructing his side to play eye-catching football shone through all season and the O's boss was pleased to prove that elevation from League Two can be achieved by attractive means.

He concluded: "I think we are the best footballing team in the division. Carlisle and Northampton have deserved what they've got and they've proven to be better than us in terms of league position but I always thought we could be successful playing football and it's turned out that way.

"My kids were on the pitch with me and I've seen my wife which was important to me because they are the team behind me.

"We were scared to plan anything in terms of a celebration but I know I'll be rolling drunk in a gutter somewhere at some stage tonight!"

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