William Shakespeare once wrote, ‘Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing,’ and I like to think he might’ve had the draw between West Ham and Brighton on Sunday in mind when he conjured up those words over 400 years ago. I jest of course, but the point still stands, though the game ended goalless, there was plenty of action, and a fair amount to talk about.

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Albion came out of the blocks like they were on fire and fashioned one of their best chances of the game after just 15 seconds. Elisabeth Terland latched on to a Madison Haley header towards the box and found herself with space to shoot, only to see her goalbound effort blocked by a West Ham defender. Brighton continued to press high and tight for the first five minutes, but the Hammers began to force them back into a more regulation style of play.

The first half drifted slightly after that frenetic start, with both sides demonstrating why they have been in the lower extremities of the league for most of the season. Whilst the Seagulls controlled possession, there didn’t seem to be much purpose to it and truthfully West Ham ended up with the better chances to break the deadlock. In particular Riko Ueki should have put the home team ahead with a back post header which she directed just past the upright when it looked easier to score.

After the break it was the Hammers who had the next opportunity to take the lead. A composed lay-off by Viviane Asseyi allowed Honoka Hayashi the space to fire off a shot from distance which looked bound for the top left-hand corner of the net until Sophie Baggaley appeared from nowhere to paw the ball wide. It was an absolute world-class save and is again testament to her excellent positioning and reflexes.

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Brighton should then have had a penalty. A poor pass out from the back by Mackenzie Arnold was picked up by Veatriki Sarri who crossed the ball into the box for Katie Robinson. She laid the ball off to the edge of the area and Madison Haley drove a shot towards goal which struck the outstretched arm of Shelina Zadorsky. When I say outstretched, I literally mean she had her arm in the air at a right angle to her body, and to all intents and purposes, saved the ball. It was an absolute stonewall spot-kick and yet again a clear handball was inexplicably not given by the officials who had a clear view of the incident. Whether it was deliberate or not should not factor into the decision whatsoever, the arm was in an unnatural position and truthfully the shot wasn’t even at particularly close range.

So we move on, West Ham force a few more half chances and overall look the more likely to score. Viviane Asseyi in particular should have done better with her own back post header from a ball floated over the head of Poppy Pattinson.

Then from a Brighton corner the ball bounces through the area and is picked up by Jorelyn Carabali who beats Asseyi and is clearly bundled over. Another absolutely nailed on penalty…that the referee decides not to give. You could maybe say, one is forgivable, but two, well one of them has to be given – surely! In truth though they BOTH were clear and obvious penalties and BOTH should have been given. It excuses poor refereeing to say well if they get one wrong and one right then that’s ok.

Not content with the two penalty shouts, barely three minutes later, a ball into the box from Julia Zigiotti Olme strikes the arm of a Jessica Ziu attempting to block the cross. Whilst not as definitive as the others, I’ve seen them given. Ziu is not looking at the ball, her arms are swinging and again the distance is such you could argue that she should have had time to get out of the way. On balance though, this would’ve been by far the harshest decision of all three to give.

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A frustrating 0-0 scoreline in a game where there absolutely should have been a goal, if not several, and Brighton can feel a little hard done by. It’s not all negative though – although they rode their luck on occasion – this was a triumph for an Albion defence who have only kept a clean sheet on one other occasion in the WSL this season.

Notes

• I’ve said before I’m not in favour of unnecessarily criticising referees, but when the time came to step up and make critical decisions, Kirsty Dowle blinked hard and came to the wrong conclusion at least twice, staring down the barrel at two cast iron penalties and doing absolutely nothing. Something needs to change within the world of refereeing in the women’s game, because the standard just isn’t good enough as it stands, and I certainly don’t put that all on the shoulders of the men and women who are on the field officiating.
• I thought the defence played pretty well, the clean sheet may have ended up being slightly fortuitous, but they worked hard and it certainly wasn’t undeserved. It felt like Carabali had a remit to go hunting for the ball and be pretty aggressive, but the players around her compensated for that and for the most part it worked.
• Although passing volume (534 attempts) and passing accuracy (75%) was up on last week there were far too many balls that went astray, particularly when in our own territory. I noticed on at least three separate occasions that Zigiotti Olme was wayward with her passes back towards the defensive third which against better teams would surely be punished more decisively. I think the coaching staff may be trying to slot her in to a ‘pivot’ role, but for my eyes that’s a square peg in a round hole.
• Possession was also up to 59%, but you need purpose with that control. When you bear in mind that the Albion had just 2 shots on target, you can see the wider picture of a team that played fairly well and had plenty of the ball, but ultimately never looked like they could really put the game out of the opponents reach.
• No Pauline Bremer in the squad again, and we still haven’t heard anything about her from Mikey Harris. Hopefully it’s not too serious an injury because an experienced head could have been exactly what we needed to nick that goal on Sunday.
• Shoutout Baggers again for her incredible save, she must have at least one or two of those ‘out of nowhere’ stops every game. What an addition for the Seagulls she has been.
• It’s a scheduled International break now, so our next game will be at the Amex Stadium under the lights on the 19th April! Hopefully see many of you there!

Episode 6 of the SheGulls Podcast will record tonight (Monday) and to be released on Tuesday. Do listen, like, subscribe – all those good things – it really helps us out!