ANDREW Fitton has pledged to bring Championship football to the County Ground within three years - and is already homing in on the man to be charged with the task of making it a reality.

Town's chairman designate, who watched Saturday's 2-1 win over Hartlepool from the directors box, insists Swindon belong at a higher level than League One and is determined to bring in the right manager to guarantee success.

Meanwhile former Town boss Dennis Wise is preparing to swoop for Slovakian goalkeeper Peter Brezovan, with Leeds United having already held discussions about a potential January transfer.

Having signed the conditional takeover deal on Thursday night, Fitton revealed he already has a shortlist of five potential managers and is hoping to start interviews within the next few days.

While Leyton Orient boss Martin Ling is understood to be near the top of Fitton's wish list, the businessman insists his mind is open to all candidates as long as they have had "proven past success".

Fitton's arrival was greeted with jubilant cheers from the terraces on Saturday and Barry Corr's 72nd minute penalty ensured a winning start to the new era.

Simon Cox had earlier cancelled out Ian Moore's first half opener but his loan spell in Wiltshire could be coming to an end with a host of Championship clubs tracking his progress ahead of January's re-opening of the transfer window.

Fitton admitted complications around the Inland Revenue still needed to be sorted before the takeover is finally sealed but remained confident it would be sorted early in the New Year.

He said: "Our plan for this club is that we think it has a place in the Championship. I don't think it is ever wise for people to come in and say Premiership in five years, or Champions league in five years. These are absurd ideas.

"Where this club should rightly be is a well established Championship club. Once you get to that stage maybe other things could happen, who knows?

"Can we get there this season? It is a big ask but it is not impossible. I would like to think I would be judged on saying are we in the Championship in three years time? In three years time if we are in the Championship I would have succeeded, if not I have failed."

With the likes of Ling, Martin Allen, and Micky Adams being touted as potential successors to Paul Sturrock, Fitton was quick to insist his own consortium have their own strict criteria the right man would have to meet.

"Every waking hour is being put into the managerial situation," he said. "There are five on the list. I think we would like to talk to them between Christmas and New Year or maybe the first few days of January. Once you start talking the process can be quite rapid.

"I think we will handle the process properly. We will interview three or four, we will then decide who our preferred candidate is and then go and get him.

"We have a set of very clear criteria against which any prospective manager will be judged and he has to have had some proven sucess. That is a key criteria. We don't want to bring someone in with no previous success because it just is not wise in the club's development.

"A lot of people seem to circulate for every job and I don't think that is the way we are going. I am very keen to get the right person to be here, not for an unrealistic amount of time, but do a good three year stint and do a good job.

"Since Thursday we have had a couple more calls because they were sitting seeing what happened with the takeover and I think rightly so. It would have been a brave man to have taken on this job if the deal had not gone through."