As part of the Everything Orient series ‘Away Days’, @QuaneRoman reviews his adventures at football grounds across the country and takes a look at everything from the best ground, the best food and most importantly, the best pubs. Next up, Salford City.
Moor Lane (Peninsula Stadium)
Capacity: 5,016 (2,240 seats)
Occupant: Salford City
Town/City: Salford, Greater Manchester
1. The Journey - 8/10
'Away Days' are back and we started with a 12:30 kick off away up in Manchester, this meant the alarm was set for 4 a.m. so I could get the half five train to London from my local station. I got the 8:00 train from Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, a journey which took two hours. A very straight forward journey, crazy to think how close Manchester is by train. However, the journey from Manchester to the ground wasn't as straight forward.
2. The Area - 7/10
It was hard to rate this, Manchester is a great city and I have a good time up there every time I go (this visit no exception) and where we went in Manchester Victoria it was very clean and quite central and close to busses, Piccadilly and shopping centres. The area of the ground, however, lacked variety and Moor Lane was situated off the grid in the north of the city, away from most bars.
3. The Pubs - 8/10
After arriving in Manchester we looked for a place in Piccadilly but there wasn't really much, however, after a short walk we found ourselves not to further up in Victoria where there was a few bars. The bar we were in, named the English Lounge, was very modern, quite small inside but had a nice area on the pavement where we were after the game when the sun came out. We could've easily stayed there all night.
4. The Ground - 4/10
I expected more from the ground. It was just four identical stands, quite modern but with no character whatsoever, a totally different ground to what was shown on the first two series of the BBC documentary. In this documentary, they had the terrace on the grass hill and the concrete stand at its side (which I quite liked). However I did like the Salford flags at the other end where the 'singers' where situated, I thought that was a nice touch.
5. Food & drink - 3/10
We turned up at Salford about 25 minutes prior to kick off, there were long ques for the one food van so I waited until the second half. I had a burger and a few chips, the burger wasn't too good, didn't look very appetising nor did it taste nice, the chips were good however, better without ketchup than with.
6. The View - 9/10
I stood just right of the goal and was only two steps up so I had a good view, my view wasn't really distracted by anything due to a low advertising board and a lack of stewards on the scene. I had a good view of all four rectangle, joined stands and the Class of 92's boxes. When they started the series, the ex-United players would stand and mix with the fans, now the new upgrade see's them have their own boxes.
7. The Programme - 8/10
Despite selling out early, I managed to get a programme but not at the first attempt. They sold out their programmes given to the away end distributors as they underestimated how many O's would turn up. However, we were walking back to the bus stop down the hill after the game and were all talking to this scouser about the game and Salford. He had a programme and we asked how he got one - he got it for free and he ended up giving my dad his programme and then walked off into another turning. That guy was Lee Steele, who scored the goal at Oxford to send Orient up to League One in 2006.
8. The Atmosphere - 9/10
Great atmosphere in the Orient end, the best I've seen in a long time. Singing throughout the game and the incredible scenes after Clay's late goal which sent O's fans into raptures, jumping the incredibly low (and not even fitted) advertising boards to celebrate with the players. Incredible scenes, O's fans flying everywhere in the celebrations, I did for sure.
9. Away Support - 8/10
Great support, Orient bringing nearly 700 to Moor Lane for a 12:30 kick off, packing out the seating area and around 8/10ths of the terracing. A very good turnout, it was nice to see a lot of flags, old and new, make an appearance.
10. The Performance - 5/10
Not the best overall performance, Orient picked up in the last 20 minutes but watching us was very frustrating, a decent point, a fair result we wasn't that good top win it but again neither were they. Check out my review of the game here.