It was a fantastic Conti Cup game last night at the Broadfield Stadium between the Albion and Aston Villa. Both sides fought hard, Brighton edged the first half, Villa edged the second – and in the league a draw would have been a fair result. Alas we ended up in a penalty shootout, and the less said about that the better.

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We exit the competition at the quarter final stage, which is a shame, but the girls gave their all to make it through – what more can you ask? Maybe some penalty practice? I jest, well … I mean maybe just at the end of the training session or whatever.

As per usual with the cup games I’ll leave the full recap to the club – this time courtesy of Bruce Talbot – MATCH REPORT – but I do have a few notes below.

Notes

• We may not have blown Villa away, but that first half was the best I’ve seen us play all season. You could see the game-plan in action and it worked. There are definitely seeds of the ‘club style’ Mikey Harris talked about being planted – the patterns in possession certainly had De Zerbi written all over them.
• After implementing this new approach, the next thing for Harris (or an incoming manager) to address is the notable drop off after the break. We reverted to type for the majority of the second half and the equaliser felt somewhat inevitable.
• That being said we were a very good Lee chance away from going through – unfortunately she placed her shot wide with maybe a minute or so left on the clock. It’s a strange one with Lee because she seems to have far more impact as a sub than as a starter. Not sure if that’s a fitness thing, an injury thing, or just a coaching decision.
• The penalties were what they were, pretty poor. Not much more I can say other than I’d assume they weren’t high priority in training at the moment.
• Baggers was immense again. Not only did she pull off a couple of world class saves in the match, but she kept two penalties out as well. Her fan club increases game by game.
• I give Poppy Pattinson a lot of credit. Geyse had her number on Sunday and Adriana Leon beat her to score Villa’s winner in December, but she locked that left-hand side down for the most part. Though the cross for the goal came from that area, it was the lack of secondary press on Kenza Dali that allowed the offending cross to come in, not her defending.
• Harris looked genuinely emotional when speaking post-match and he admitted as much in the interview. Whatever you think of his predecessor or his appointment, he clearly cares. That goes a long way in my book.