I believe it was Homer who once said, ‘Trying is the first step towards failure’, Homer Simpson that is. A little facetious perhaps, but all the same an apt summation of the Albion’s 4-1 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

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For a short period the Albion seemed to grow into the game. In particular between the 15th and 25th minute there was some excellent pressing, passing, and possession play that must have had the Citizens wondering if they were in for a long afternoon. One sure fire way to derail that momentum though? A goal.

A loose pass out from the back by Guro Bergsvand caught Julia Zigiotti Olme slightly on her heels. Yui Hasegawa, who was excellent all game, got her foot in, the ball came to Jess Park in acres of space to guide a pass through to Lauren Hemp in the area. Though the angle was fairly acute, Hemp managed to shoot as she slid across the damp surface, and the ball somehow wriggled between Sophie Baggaley’s legs and into the net (27′). It was inevitable that continuing to lose possession so high would come back to bite them and if we’re being honest I think Baggers will be slightly disappointed at being beaten on the angle, but it happens.

That goal was a real momentum shifter. You could see shoulders dip a little bit and why wouldn’t they – we’ve been here before many times this season. All that hard work, and the shoots of success, only to go down 1-0 again. The Seagulls fought to stay in the game, but you could see the City players growing more and more confident as time wore on and it didn’t take long for them to double their lead.

A clearance from Baggers, though it travelled a fair distance, was picked up in the midfield by Leila Ouhabi who laid the ball off to Park. Three or four quick passes down the left hand side and Hemp swung a cross into the corridor of uncertainty between the keeper and the defence. All the Brighton players seemed to watch in admiration as the only player really alive to the situation, Mary Fowler, stole in to smash the ball home from short range (40′).

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2-0 down at the break, some encouraging play, particularly in the press, but ultimately nothing to show from it except another mountain to climb. Difficult against any team, basically impossible against a City side playing well with a two goal head start.

The second-half was a disjointed affair. The Albion had to try and score, but were pretty toothless, and the Citizens essentially need do nothing but hold on to the lead and make it out of Crawley unscathed. It felt like this game was only going one way, and I could feel it in the atmosphere around me.

Hemp is some footballer though, little secret – she’s actually my favourite player in the women’s game, often still underrated despite her achievements. She expertly turned Li Mengwen just five minutes after the restart and curled a beautiful shot beyond Baggers that clattered off the far post. So nearly 3-0 and you could feel it coming.

In the 69th minute Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw finally got herself on the scoresheet after putting in a shift all afternoon. Hasegawa, once again in far too much space, floated a lovely ball forward into the box that was just waiting for one of the best aerial talents in the game to nod home from the edge of the six-yard box. A goal straight off the training ground that the Albion seemed powerless to stop.

Speaking of which, City’s fourth seemed like something drawn up weeks in advance. Some pretty one-touch passing down the right-hand side had Brighton all at sea (pun intended) and a fairly simple cut back along the ground into the box was driven home by Laura Coombes all too easily (78′).

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The Albion did get a consolation goal a minute into stoppage time as second-half substitute Lee Guem-min took advantage of some good situational awareness from Maisie Symonds and Elisabeth Terland to guide the ball into the net from a pinpoint Veatriki Sarri cross. A nice move, albeit the City players were already showered, changed, on the coach, and halfway back to Manchester at this stage of the game.

Overall a somewhat expected result with a first half effort which seemed promising, but lacked any tangible end result, and a second-half that summed up where we are as a squad and where we are in table. Our next games are against Leicester (away), West Ham (away), and Everton (home), and we seriously need to lay down a marker against these three very beatable teams in order to gain some form and prove we are moving forward as a club.

Notes

• I thought Jorelyn Carabali had an excellent game today for the most part. Her pace at the back really is invaluable and she aggressively hunts down the ball. With a little refinement overall and improved composure that comes with experience I think she could be an excellent WSL defender – hopefully for the Albion!
• Maria Thorisdottir came off at half-time after she took a heavy knock just before the break. It was difficult to see exactly what happened, but obviously we hope she is ok and it wasn’t anything too serious. Get well soon Maria!
• It was good to see two forwards start the game up top with both Terland and Madison Haley named in the XI. It definitely helped the Albion press higher early on, but ultimately strikers are there to score goals and 3 shots, 1 on target probably sums up how often they were called on to defend rather than attack.
• It’s hard to pinpoint why, but teams like City play with what feels like an extra player who is always in space, is always a free runner, and is always there to use as an outlet to diffuse pressure. In contrast we always seem in a rush, in a slight state of panic for the majority of games. How can we change this? Is it tactics? Lack of quality? Unimaginative coaching? Squad composition? The stats back this up, just 31% possession, less than half the amount of passes completed than City, and 11% lower accuracy rate.
• I’m still leaning towards us needing another overhaul in the summer. We have a lot of players who you look at and anecdotally agree aren’t bad, but how long can we continue to lose games, be outworked and/or outplayed, before you have to question whether ‘not bad’ is actually ‘good’ enough.

Episode 4 of the podcast will be recorded tonight, with more discussion about the City game and a look ahead to our upcoming fixture against Leicester City. Get involved via X (@SheGulls) or via email shegullspodcast@outlook.com