Abubacarr Kamara reflects on the Leyton Orient women’s debut season.
Kikk United’s transition to Leyton Orient women’s this season can be put down as a success after finishing third in the league with 39 points.
After starting the season brightly, the winter period was not a fun one for the O’s due to a lot of matches being postponed because of bad weather which made it hard for the team to get into a rhythm.
“We want to win this division and get promoted” was the statement from the manager Chris Brayford when asked about his team’s ambition earlier on in the season, and although they might have fallen short of that but their season was still a success overall.
“The change to Orient was something we was working on over the summer and did not get it done until the deadline,” added Brayford.
The move to Orient from Kikk United was not an easy one however, as Brayford and Leyton Orient discussed at length throughout the summer to eventually make the transition happen just before the deadline, meaning pre-season was difficult.
Cherry on top
As well as a limited pre-season, the team had to continue wearing their Kikk United kit for the majority of the season due to errors made by the kit manufactures, while finding a new sponsor also proved problematic.
The O’s eventually received their new Orient kit with four games left of the season and made sure they finished the season unbeaten in their new strip, even managing to win the Mayor’s Cup to put the cherry on top of a magnificent season.
“The difference is exposure when you say you play for Orient people want to talk to you and ask questions, whereas when we used to say we played for Kikk United people would say who?” Captain Danielle Griffiths explained when discussing the benefits of the transition to Orient.
Promotion might have been a better way to end the season but for a first season as a new club in a new league, finishing third with hope for promotion next season is not a bad start. Whatever happens at Orient women’s next season is bound to be exciting for everyone.