DEAN COX hailed the influence of manager Russell Slade after putting pen-to-paper on a new long-term contract with the O's on Friday.
24-year-old winger Cox has committed his future to the O's until the summer of 2015, just 18 months after being released by previous club Brighton & Hove Albion.
He had lost his place in the Seagulls team under Gus Poyet but Slade saw his potential at the Withdean Stadium and offered him the chance to get his career back on track in E10.
Cox has taken the opportunity with both hands and is looking forward to continuing his progress over the coming years.
"I'm delighted to sign," he said. "There has been a bit of speculation and I'm not going to lie, there's been a bit of interest, but when I sat down with Russ and we spoke about the plans he has here, it was great to get it done.
"Negotiations were ongoing, in the end we've come to an agreement and I'm delighted.
"My relationship with the manager is one of the main reasons I've signed. Everyone knows that we get on really well. He showed great faith in me to bring me here and I'd like to think that I've repaid that over the last couple of years.
"I'm settled here and the missus is too. We've got a good thing going here at this club, we're in the top half of the table now and I really want to push Leyton Orient further up that table."
Cox has netted an incredible 19 goals and laid on 30 assists in just 82 games as an O's player and he believes he has played the best football of his life since moving to Brisbane Road.
He continued: "Without a shadow of a doubt these have been the best two years of my career. I've put a bit of pressure on myself with those numbers I think!
"The stats are great, but getting the results is the main thing. If I can emulate that kind of ratio for goals and assists though I'll be more than happy."
With Orient having moved into the top half of the table with last weekend's win at Preston, Cox is convinced Orient can continue to build over the last 19 games of the season and launch a real play-off push.
He added: "There's the same kind of feel as last year when we pushed on in the second half of the season. We played really well up at Preston last weekend, it was a great performance.
"The fans were great too, taking the mickey out of their long-ball antics which sort of played into our hands because we were playing some nice stuff.
"It was a great result and those kind of wins, away at teams like Preston, prove that we're a good side and that we should be able to move up this league.
"We've got Colchester on Saturday and we're confident we can build on that. Things are going well, we just need to keep pushing on."
This interview appeared first as a TV feature on Orient Player. Click here to subscribe or for more info on our premium web service - available from less than 10p per day!
