AUDIO: Russell Slade is hoping FA Cup success at Carrow Road can be replicated in the league.

Slade's gesture to club chairman Barry Hearn in the directors' box as the game was in its final moments suggested both of them were having problems controlling a furious heartbeat as Orient held on for a famous victory.

Hearn will be happy for the extra revenue that a place in the fourth round draw will bring, while Slade's eyes are now on next week's League One visit to Rochdale.

'I think this means a lot because it can give your players a little bit of a boost – hopefully a positive boost when we get back to the league next week,' he said. 'We are away at Rochdale and have to go there and show that same sort of resilience and commitment to get ourselves steadily up the table.

'I think what was perhaps masked a little bit today is that we are in reasonably good form. I think we have only lost one in 11 games. Our form since the start of the season where we only collected four points from seven games has improved dramatically and we are on the up. It's really pleasing to see us get a result at a club like Norwich.'

A headed goal from former Canaries loan player Jimmy Smith on 20 minutes won it for the visitors.

'His heading has probably been, for me, a little bit of a weakness, but over the last two weeks it has been terrific,' Slade said. 'He has scored two headers in the last two games and two vital goals for us.

'The coaches have worked on it and Jimmy has worked on it himself. He is a good professional, an absolute 100 per center and he deserves that because he has threatened to score on numerous occasions and it's been a little bit frustrating for him, but now he has got two in two weeks and I think that's his third this season, so he is starting to tot them up a little bit.

'He really seems to be enjoying his football. He enjoyed his time here and we stayed in the hotel where he spent six months so to come back he was in familiar surroundings.'

'I thought we took a few moments to settle down but once we got the goal I thought we kept the ball a little bit better and of course the goal gave us something to hang on to.

'With the ball we have done very well at certain times this season, but without the ball that's by far our best performance. The resilience we have shown, not just the centre halves but the likes of Alex Revell who has come back and defended at the far stick and midfielders who were throwing their bodies on the line and making blocks.

'Jamie Jones has made two important saves, but that was it really. For all the pressure we were under we were winning the headers, we were winning the first ball and if we didn't quite win the first one we were certainly winning the second one. That went right to the final whistle and I think we deserved to win the game.'