It was far from a Good Friday for Guiseley as they went down to a 3-1 defeat at home to Leyton Orient who scored all four goals in a game that had an end of season feel about it. And while the Lions may not technically be relegated the performance suggested that the cause is already lost.

Jobi McAnuff’s brace plus David Mooney’s late strike gave Leyton an easy win on their first ever visit to Nethermoor, the only blot on their copybook being a bizarre own goal by Joe Widdowson
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Guiseley weren’t helped by the news that although John Rooney had his dismissal against Halifax overturned by the FA on appeal, he has now been given a two-match ban for alleged comments made to the referee’s assistant during the same game. Add to that Luke Coddington’s straight red a minute into the second period and the chances of a home win were all but extinguished.
Orient started strongly and both Macauley Bonne and Craig Clay went close.

Rowan Liburd put a wayward header over, Alex Purver stung Dean Brill’s hands from distance and Victor Nirennold’s cross evaded Brill but fell behind Kayode Odejayi as the Lions traded blows with the visitors from East London.

But it all fell apart in the 46th minute when Coddington raced out of his area and felled Bonne giving referee Marc Edwards no option but to brandish the inevitable red card.

The returning Kevan Hurst was sacrificed to allow Joe Green to replace Coddington between the sticks and his first task was to pick the ball out of the net as McAnuff curled the resulting free-kick into the top corner over the wall.

McAnuff grabbed his second on 75 minutes as he was allowed to progress twenty yards without being challenged and shoot low past Green.

The Lions were given some hope moments later when Brill air-kicked Joe Widdowson’s back-pass and the ball rolled into his net but it proved to be a false dawn as James Brophy skipped past two defenders on the byline to present Mooney with the easiest of conversions with almost the last kick of the game and complete the home side misery.

Team:

1 Coddington
42 Nirennold
2 Frempah (Holden 66)
12 Southwell
5 Palmer
17 Purver
8 Hatfield
20 Williams
19 Odejayi
7 Hurst (Green 49)
35 Liburd (Roberts 78)

Subs:
13 Green
32 Hudson
34 Holden
36 Harvey
39 Roberts