Well, well, well, a form team the pundits are raving about, FA Cup finalists, past, present and future Lionesses right left and centre – held at home. Turns out the hype train stops at Brighton station.

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Truth be told, my sister got married on the weekend so as you can appreciate I was slightly distracted during the game. I don’t think it’s useful for me to ‘recap’ the match in this instance, as I prefer to take notes and watch the action live, so today’s synopsis of the game comes via the club website, written by Luke Nicoli.

Notes

• I do think Spurs had half an eye on the upcoming FA Cup Final in two weeks time, but that shouldn’t diminish the fact the Albion played really well in a tough fixture away from home.
• Despite the fact that Brighton were beaten on possession, passing, pass accuracy, shots, shots on target (the list continues), it felt a fairly even game – perhaps reflected better in the overall xG of 1.5 versus 1.6 in favour of the Seagulls.
• Everytime Elizabeth Terland scores I feel both joy (obviously) and sadness because these could be her last few games for the club – let’s hope not! The initial header for her goal was perhaps one of those you almost hit ‘too well’ as Becky Spencer tipped the ball on to the bar, but Teri was live to the rebound and finished it off with trademark aplomb.
• Their goal came after a sustained period of pressure late in the game. Brighton got caught too high down the left flank allowing Ashleigh Neville time and space to get in behind and put an unchallenged cross into the box. Beth England did what she does best, nicking in ahead of Guro Bergsvand to place the ball up and over Melina Loeck. Unfortunately this pattern of not being able to recover once we are dispossessed, leading to a goal, is becoming alarming familiar.
• Loeck had a pretty good game, she was solid when called upon, she had no chance to prevent the goal, and she certainly is a more imposing figure between the sticks than Sophie Baggaley. At this stage I think we would all agree that Baggers is the current incumbent of the starting spot, but I’d like to see more of Loeck for sure.
• Pauline Bremer is a big miss when she’s out. You could see with her starting yesterday that the whole team had more composure simply because they had more trust in the player behind, beside or in front of them. Her work down the right-hand side, particularly first half where she had a big hand in Teri’s goal, was exceptional.
• In terms of impact and organisation I think you could argue similarly that with Maria Thorisdottir out our defence is more exposed.
• Julia Zigiotti Olme and Maisie Symonds clashed heads late in the first half with the Swede coming off worst. After a few minutes of treatment she had to be substituted, hopefully just as a precaution, but we await further updates and wish Julia well.
• Mikey’s wheel of mysterious substitutes spun once again when he took Lee Guem-min and Teri off to be replaced by Li Mengwen and Emma Kullburg in the 77th minute. We were still 1-0 up at that stage so it was presumably a defensive move, but as with the Everton game it backfired once we then conceded, with Kullberg in particular ending up in a sort of midfield-slash-ten role that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her occupy before. Making defensive subs is fine, but you can’t concede after they come on, otherwise the team is just set up too negatively to fight back.

Episode 9 of the SheGulls Podcast will be recorded tonight and available to listen to on all good podcast providers on Tuesday evening.