BARRY Hearn admitted sacking Martin Ling last season was the hardest decision he has made in 14 years as Leyton Orient chairman.

But with the London club staring down the barrel of potential relegation into League Two, sporting promoter Hearn had to act.

Ling was given the boot mid-way through the season, Geraint Williams was installed and the switch had an immediate impact.

Williams guided his side to seven wins from his first nine games in charge and they preserved their League One status thanks to a 1-0 win over Swindon Town in April.

Hearn reflected: "That was the hardest decision I have had to make in 14 years as Orient chairman. Martin was more than just our manager — he was an Orient legend and friend to everyone at the club.

"But we needed to preserve our status at this level and the season had not been good enough, so we had to give ourselves long enough to turn things around."

A cut-throat decision it might have been, but pivotal it proved.

And after Williams completed the task of leading Orient to safety, the Welshman was offered a new one-year contract.

Hearn added: "We're delighted Geraint has agreed to stay with us and continue the good work he's started." Indeed Orient have rarely been out of the limelight in the last couple of seasons.

They have been linked with a move into London's Olympic Stadium after the Games finish in 2012.

Orient emerged as leading candidates to move into the stadium in the east of London after it is down-sized from 80,000 to a 25,000 capacity.

But Hearn has put the brakes on the proposed switch, claiming the design of the stadium does not make for a good atmosphere for a football club.

"It was so exciting — imagine 'Olympic Stadium' as the postal address for Leyton Orient," Hearn said.

"It would have solved our problems and we would have brought some money and given it some long-term viability.

"We could have lived with retractable seats over the track, but not with a permanent track and the way the seats are designed.

"The Olympics is a good thing but this centrepiece will be wasted — a white elephant requiring substantial ongoing cash from the taxpayer."

The colourful chairman came close to selling the club to a consortium headed by David Beckham's pal Terry Byrne last season.

But talks broke down and now Hearn is pressing ahead with his bid to transfer the ownership of Brisbane Road from the club itself to his own company — in exchange for wiping out the debts.

Hearn's attempts to spark an upturn in fortunes for his club culminated in Orient releasing eight players at the end of last season.

Alton Thelwell, Wayne Gray, Paul Terry, Brian Saah, Danny Granville, Bradley Gray, Aiden Palmer and Solomon Shields were all shown the door.

And while some replacements have been found, question marks remain over their ability to mount a challenge at the top end of Coca-Cola League One next season.