We are delighted to announced that Ollie Brown has signed a new contract with the club for the 2024/25 season.
Academy graduate Ollie Brown has become a crowd favourite at Nethermoor after taking a convoluted route to Guiseley first team success, writes Rachel O’Connor.
The Nethermoor faithful will be pleased to hear that the young defender has signed a new contract with the club.
They will also be pleased to hear that Brown has faith in a number of the past season’s successful Academy team and believes that some could go on to emulate him and make their mark with the first team.
He expanded his view by saying: “Dave Currie’s Academy never disappoints and a few of them have trained with the first team squad through last season and impressed. We could see how talented they are and what promise they have and I hope some of them make it through.”
For his own part Brown had to take a step sideways to take a step forward with Guiseley after graduating from the Academy.
He broke through to the first team in 2020/21 in a Covid hut season but felt he needed to make more progress and decided to move away.
He said: “I got to the point where I felt that I needed a change of scenery and to get out of my comfort zone and needed to play under new managers and with new players to improve my game. Thus I signed for Alfreton Town but that did not exactly turn out as I would have liked.
“I played throughout the 2022/23 pre-season but then did not get a look in in the opening four league games so I went out on loan to Atherton Collieries, initially for a month but ended up staying there for the rest of the season.”
The benefits of playing over 30 league games, and many of them as a midfielder, were not lost on Brown who will be ever grateful for the trust Atherton placed in him. He made a real impact there and gained valuable confidence in his own play.
Of his current position the 21 year-old said: “I was very happy when Guiseley came in for me at the start of last season and brought me back. I am very happy to be with this club and am really looking forward to a new season starting. I love the club, it is like family.”
Brown bemoaned the fact that last season’s team did not do as well as everyone expected but put that down to ‘too much chopping and changing, we had a good side, a side that should have ended the season better’.
Brown added: “Hopefully we will get a good pre-season in under the new management team, a team that already knows everything about Guiseley and has had success with them before. We will be looking to press on with them and not have so many bumps in the road.”
Another place Brown hopes will not have too many bumps in the road is the course of the Scottish 500 which he and some friends hope to complete in the summer while he waits for the new season to start. No doubt he will come in handy being a mechanic.
His ambition for the new football season? To score a goal! Hopefully when he does it will be the first of many to follow.
The former Bradford City Junior marks down the Academy’s FA Youth Cup run, especially the win over Bolton Wanderers, as one of his best experiences so far.
