We found ourselves at the Amex Stadium once more for a Saturday lunchtime tussle with West Ham. Was it straightforward, no, did we almost snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, yes – but this is Brighton – we rarely do things the easy way. Sir Alex Ferguson coined the phrase ‘squeaky bum time’, well I’ll be honest I was an airtight human being for the last twenty minutes of this one…

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You can read the full match report courtesy of Bruce Talbot on the BHAFC website HERE, and if you’d like to watch the extended highlights you can head over to the official BHAFC YouTube channel HERE.

The SheGulls Summary

Brighton & Hove Albion

• There’s an old football adage, “you don’t shoot, you don’t score” and Brighton’s first two goals were very much testament to that theory. The first came from an excellent flick by Fran Kirby which found Rachel McLauchlan in the box, she cut inside and placed a low shot into the bottom left hand corner. It’s impossible to say of course, but what it had in precision it slightly lacked in power, but with the goalkeeper’s vision blocked by two defenders – she ultimately had no chance to react. Congrats to Rachel for getting off the mark in blue and white!
• The second wasn’t too dissimilar – this time it was the goalscorer who turned provider as her pass from the edge of the box found Kiko Seike who sort of bobbled her shot into the far corner of the net. I still can’t decide whether the keeper was woefully out of position, thought it was going wide, or it just wrong-footed her, but either way it counted just as much as an absolute screamer from 30 yards.
• Speaking of which, we’re controlling the game at this stage, though West Ham admittedly a couple of chances to get back into it, which fortunately for the Albion they squandered away. Up steps Hammers captain Katrina Gorry, who smashes a speculative one from distance which takes a deflection off Guro Bergsvand and ends up flying past Sophie Baggaley and into the net. Opposite to our two goals this shot had a ton of power, but would likely have been saved by Baggers had it not struck Bergsvand.
• Gorry had already hit the bar, then she scores from range. We’d been warned, heck we’d already been bitten. A pass out from the back from Bergsvand to Vicky Losada was so predictable Nostradamus had made note of it in the 16th century and West Ham were immediately all over us. Cue the ball to Gorry who thunders in another shot from range, via another deflection off Bergsvand, 2-2.
• So many times this has happened over the past few seasons I can’t tell you, and the old familiar sinking feeling was back – how has this happened? This is not that team though, this is a new Brighton, and dammit we weren’t going to go quietly into the afternoon!
• With eight minutes of normal time to go a really neat interchange set Seike away on the right, her ball into the box found Kirby, who wrongfooted the West Ham defender and tucked it past the keeper, in off the right hand post. That is what we’d been missing until this year, and now we have it – resilience.
• This wasn’t the easy game a lot of people had it pegged as though, whether playing at the Amex was a factor is difficult to say, and we did have a few injuries in key positions to deal with as well. West Ham had at least two other chances to score that better teams would surely have put away.
• The statistics bear that out for the most part. Brighton edging the possession and passing numbers, but West Ham level with us on shots, having more touches in the opposing box and with three ‘big chances’ created to our one.
• There will be points in the game where you aren’t in the ascendancy and the key is to remain engaged and keep that high level of concentration. Brighton still occasionally have what could be referred to, perhaps unkindly, as a ‘mad xx minutes’. Now against West Ham that 5-minute period resulted in us going from 2-0 up to 2-2, against Arsenal that 12-minute period resulted in us going 3-0 down. With the former we were able to overcome that and win, but against an elite outfit like Arsenal, that was the death knell. Work to be done as always.
• I thought McLauchlan probably deserved player of the match for her marauding role down the right-hand side. A goal and an assist was just rewards for her incredible effort. Fran took home the award though, and I can’t argue too much, she seemed much more involved in this game and also tallied a goal and an assist.
• Special shoutout to Maisie Symonds who, after a one day crash course in playing at centre back, was altogether solid next to Bergsvand for the most part.
• The two substitutes that came on in the 74th minute made a really positive impact. Michelle Agyemang took on the entire right hand side of the West Ham team on a couple of occasions and Jelena Cankovic (welcome back) was cool, calm and composed in the midfield exactly when we needed it. Pauline Bremer came on for the last couple of minutes, so had no real bearing on the game, but it’s fantastic to see her back from injury also.
• Context: We’re still third in the WSL and we keep on winning these close games – long may both continue!

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West Ham

• I thought West Ham played pretty well to be honest. They don’t have as strong a squad as us and were away from home, so they did sit pretty low at times, but they were dangerous on the counter and managed to create a couple of opportunities that really should have been put away. Ironically I don’t think either of their actual goals would have gone in had they not been deflected.
• I’d not seen a ton of their keeper, Kinga Szemik, before this game, but I was aware that she was quite highly regarded coming from French football. To be honest though I wasn’t massively impressed. The first goal she’s unsighted, but could perhaps have had a better starting position, the second trickles in somehow when it felt like she could have almost walked over and picked it up, and the third beats her on the side of the goal she is actually covering. Just one of those days perhaps.

Other Business

• This was the Albion women’s designated Rainbow Laces fixture and the club’s promotion of the campaign was positive, but as always there’s room for improvement. It was great to see the enormous flag flying high in the East stand on the broadcast, though us fans couldn’t see it, being as we were seated underneath. The fanzone that opened at 10.30am had no signage and zero activity until 11.15am when a few members of staff came to hand out t-shirts and laces. This is to be both applauded and appreciated, but it wasn’t clear to the uninformed what the whole thing was for. I heard many people ask why they were giving stuff away and latterly others on the concourse stating that they didn’t know where the fanzone was or when anything was to be given out – and had missed it all. I did wait outside a little longer and once the band arrived resplendent in their Rainbow Laces t-shirts around 11.45am, things did kick into gear and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We will as ever pass feedback on to the club, both positive and otherwise.
• The official attendance was 4,638 – a steep drop from the heights of over 8,000 for the game against Manchester United. However, I would have been surprised if this game had drawn much more than 2,000 at the Broadfield so everything has to be put into perspective. Perhaps with two games close together at the Amex and one lacking real crowd-enticing opposition, there needs to be an incentive to attend both for more casual supporters. Food for thought.
• Anecdotally, from what I saw and from those I heard talk about it, the experience of managing the queues and the approach to stewarding in general was much improved from the United game. The staff on the turnstiles greeted us warmly, joking and giving out high fives to the kids. Only good things to say on that front.
• Truthfully the referee didn’t have a massive amount to do in this game. It was relatively good-tempered and there were no controversial decisions for her to preside over, but I thought she did as well as possible in those circumstances.

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For more in depth discussion please do check out the SheGulls Podcast, recording Monday for release Tues/Wed, where Duncan, Ben and Claire will discuss this game, look ahead to Leicester in the League Cup next weekend, and probably waffle on far too much for their own good!

I believe all three of us are at the aforementioned Leicester game and of course everyone is in different seats with it being a cup fixture, so we’re looking forward to seeing some new faces sat round and about! Do come and say hello!