Another week and unfortunately another poor performance by the Albion last night away at Aston Villa. Rumours of an illness that affected the squad are as of yet unconfirmed and therefore we can only discuss what happened on the field, not off it.

I’m not a big fan of these late Sunday night kick-offs, particularly as the away team. They just lend themselves to lethargic performances and to be honest both teams played football to fall asleep to in the first half – a fact confirmed by the first ‘highlight’ in the WSL’s own coverage coming in the 32nd minute.

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Admittedly it was worth another look. The Brighton defenders backed off as they have been prone to do, and allowed Rachel Daly to fire a shot from just outside the box. Although Sophie Baggaley made it down quickly to her left, she was only able to parry the ball out, and Adriana Leon pounced quickly to chip the rebound into the net. It looked offside though at first glance, Leon got there altogether too quickly for it not to be, and the linesman subsequently raised her flag. A reprieve of sorts, but with these type of decisions going against us recently, it was most welcome.

Then, just before the break, came Brighton’s one and only serious chance in the game. An excellent through ball from Vicky Losada put Elisabeth Terland in on goal, albeit under pressure from the Villa defence. Rachel Corsie had hold of Terland’s shirt as they drove towards the box and she could only just get a shot away as she fell. It beat backup keeper Anna Leat, but unfortunately it didn’t beat the bar as it struck the woodwork and bounced over. Claims for what was a clear foul fell on deaf ears as the referee signalled that she had played advantage. Corsie should still have been booked, but escaped scot-free (pun intended).

I’d love to say that the Seagulls came out a different team in the second half, but if anything they might’ve been worse, and on 63 minutes the inevitable happened. Poppy Pattinson somehow allowed Leon to go round the outside of her without putting in a tackle, dribble the ball into the six-yard box and poke it between Baggaley’s legs. There was nothing the keeper could do, it was point blank range and all Leon had to do was avoid a stray Brighton leg as she prodded it home.

We did finally register our one and only shot on target of the match in the 78th minute as Terland found space and fired from range low to Leat’s left, but it was a fairly comfortable save truth be told. The only other event of real note was Maz Pacheco being sent off in the 89th minute. Having been booked a few minutes earlier for time-wasting, she upended Katie Robinson and was deservedly shown a second yellow. Unfortunately for the Albion it was too late to have any real impact on the game.

I haven’t talked much about Villa but they were clearly the better side, whilst also showing why they aren’t quite the force they were last season. They did in fact have 20 shots, with 7 on target, but their finishing was borderline wasteful. Daly and Kenza Dali drifted in and out of the game and were certainly not the threat we’d come to expect from the pair. Canadian international and Manchester United loanee Leon was clearly their biggest threat and as well as scoring the goal, she drove the team forward time and time again. In this case that touch of class was all Villa needed.

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Once again Brighton were outposessed (62% vs 38%), attempted far fewer passes (511 vs 314) and their passes were less accurate (81% vs 72%). Unlike the game against Leicester they were also outshot too (20 vs 7) with shots on target particularly poor (7 vs 1).

After the game head coach Melissa Phillips asked fans to look at the ‘bigger picture’ in terms of games we have coming up in the new year. However that works both ways because the big picture at the moment is equally that we are 3 points off 12th with only 1 single point more after 10 games than we had during the shambles that was last season. Any hope we had of avoiding a relegation battle has pretty much faded away with three poor results in a row after such a good spell against the ‘big four’. We have been asked to be patient and allow the team to gel, but 10 games on, truthfully we’re not playing any better than we did on the opening day against Everton.

I hope the rumours are true (in the nicest possible way), because if not that really wasn’t good enough last night. If they are I wish everyone a speedy recovery and look forward to a marked improvement in January. If not, something drastic has to change.

Notes

• As far as we were aware, Nicky Evrard, Dejana Stefanovic and likely Lee Guem-min were out with injuries of differing length. Madison Haley and Mackenzie Hawkesby are of unknown status, but haven’t played or been named as substitutes for a few weeks. That leaves Charlie Rule and Emma Kullberg as potential illness casualties.
• I wonder if they might consider switching Pattinson to the left midfield/wing full-time. Her defending really isn’t her best attribute and removing that as her primary responsibility could give her a new lease of life at the club.
• The passing at times is still absolutely woeful, even the most basic attempts frequently go out of play or straight to the opposition. I love a rondo or a tiki taka drill, but the basics of technique and accuracy need to be in place first.
• Shout out to referee Emily Heaslip who had a good game overall I thought. Important to praise those that do well in addition to calling out incorrect decisions.

I’ll stop there because believe it or not – I don’t want to be too negative. The new year is a good time to click refresh on the season and attack it like we need every point from every game. We might.

Look out for a transfer window preview, two excellent interviews with people working within the women’s game, and a post full of cracking christmas jokes and japes featuring a SPECIAL GUEST contributor – all coming very soon to SheGulls.com!