On Good Friday, I made the 217 mile journey to Nethermoor Park, the home of the struggling Guiseley who sit rock bottom of the National League, an away day that I've been looking forward too since the start of the year. Here is my recount on my day.
1. The Journey 7/10
The journey to Guiseley or anywhere in Yorkshire via Leeds is a quite a easy process, by my preferred method of away day transport it took just over 3 hours from Kings Cross to Guiseley on the train, on the railcard (as an U18) the journey came to a total of just £13.50 from Essex to Yorkshire. The Train going up was rammed solid with people going up north for the Easter weekend, so it was a bit of a squash and a squeeze and it was particularly hard for us getting seats near each other in the unreserved carriages.
2. The Pubs 6/10
After arriving in Guiseley with 2 hours before kick off, we headed to the first pub the Project Major opposite the station, a nice pub with a good little heated overhead canopy but it was quite overpriced in terms of Food and Drink, £3.50 for soft drinks and £10 for a chicken burger (not including sides). So we then headed to The Station pub 5 minuets from the ground to meet up with some mates, good priced drink, live football on the screens which does reasonable pizzas, a good little pub which had a nice warm feel to it.
3. The Area 7/10
Guiseley was actually a nicer place than I expected, the stone cottages, little bistros, cobbled streets, chimney smoke and open green fields was a nice change from some of the bellow par towns I've seen in this league this season, it was like a mix of Coronation Street and Emmerdale. A nice advert for Northern England.
4. The Ground 3/10
When we saw the ground in the distance with one rickety derelict stand we knew this wasn't going to be the nicest ground we've been to, low fences behind the goal, sharp turnstiles, no stewards and poor segregation was just the start. It reminded me of Aveley's old ground Mill Filed. It was a poor ground for National League standards, at best a National League North ground, however it does have character which is something that is priceless in football these days.
5. The View 7/10
I stood behind the goal on the terrace next to the row of beautiful flags (seen above) ; the view was actually decent view with the two floodlights at the side, I could see the whole pitch as I was situated just slightly left of the goalpost, I could also see the hills and houses behind the goal with smoke drifting above from the chimney's which was a nice image.
6. The Food 6/10
As I had a few pizza slices in the pub earlier, I didn't go all out for a meal at the ground, I bought chips for about £2, good crispy, golden, thin chips covered in ketchup with a blanket of salt which enriched my taste buds. From my opinion what I had was good but other people who had pies and burgers told me the food wasn't too nice.
7. The Atmosphere 6/10
It was hard for us to generate atmosphere as the gaps between the terraces' were quite big, so it didn't look as packed on the Terrace like Aldershot away or Bromley away, it was still a good atmosphere though but despite the home end looking quiet packed they didn't really make as much noise, but again would you expect a team to be jumping up and down when Guiseley are slipping closer towards relegation?
8. Programmes 0/10
Guiseley only printed 200 programmes so I cant really give a mark for this as I only know 1 orient fan that got one, the reason I gave zero is that I feel it's unacceptable to only print 200 as we have great travelling support, I would've expected programme's to sell out but I was stunned by the availability.
9. The Performance 7/10
A poor first half display by Orient, much improved performance in the Second half and a sending off for the home side helped The O's to a 3-1 win, Jobi McAnuff's exceptional free kick after half time to open the scoring was the pick of the goals. Come 4.50 I was celebrating a rare Orient win!
10. Travelling O's Support 7/10
Around 450 Orient fans made the journey up to West Yorkshire, great support from us once again considering our form lately, definitely one of the best in the league on par with Tranmere Rovers, another club that shouldn't be in this league. Great to see Kent Teague in the away end again this week, always singing his heart out.
Overall - 56/100
Overall, a good away day with a few good pubs and a below average ground, but every away day is so much better when you celebrate 3 points at the end of it.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this article, tell me your thoughts on this via twitter is this theme worth continuing next season? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The O's are next on the road at Football League chasing Macclesfield Town soon. I'll be there for that, hope to see you there. Up the O's!
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