If there ever was a good time to play Manchester City it was yesterday, fresh off three losses in 15 days to Chelsea, including a League Cup final defeat and being knocked out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. From an Albion perspective, the Leicester game wasn’t ideal preparation, but being back at fortress Broadfield and with the knowledge we’d pushed Chelsea themselves hard, many fans were cautiously optimistic. They were right to be.

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For a full recap of the match action you can head over to the Albion website HERE and read the words of Bruce Talbot. Match highlights are available on the official WSL YouTube channel HERE.

The SheGulls Summary

Brighton & Hove Albion

• Let’s talk more generally before we drill down in to the individual points. Brighton absolutely, categorically, deserved something from this game, in fact you could make a compelling argument that they deserved to win. In a season where to an extent we are looking for performances alongside the pursuit of points – this was an excellent performance – it just happened to be one in which the opposition found an edge when they needed it. We’re all familiar with the sentiment that teams at or near the top of the table must win the odd game they don’t play well in and sadly we were on the end of one of those yesterday.
• I use Sofascore.com for a lot of my statistics and for the women’s game it is a fantastic resource because of how many different metrics they track. If you care to look at the stats for this game you can see how well the Albion played. More possession, passes, shots, attacking momentum, periods of high pressure and so on. Though they don’t track xG I can tell you that we edged that 1.9 to 1.7 as well.
• Ultimately we lost, that’s the only measurement that matters, so of course there’s work to be done. I offer zero criticism of any of our players, however, I would point out how clinical and efficient City’s goals were. Do we have the ability to do that to teams? Not play to our free flowing best but still get three points? If we don’t then there’s work to be done in the offseason I’d suggest. Perhaps that’s the leap Brighton needs to take to make that upper echelon of clubs competing for Europe.
• Let’s talk about the goals then. Man City’s first comes from them dispossessing us in the midfield. Yui Hasegawa finds Mary Fowler with an incisive pass and Fowler sends Guro Bergsvand and Marit Auee to the shops before crossing the ball into the six-yard box. Kerstin Casperij is then able to steal a march on Maria Thorisdottir and find the net with a smart side-foot finish. Three pieces of quality play from quality players and a goal is the result.
• The second I would put at least partially down to the fact that Brighton were really chasing that equaliser. On the counter Kerolin gets away down the left wing past Charlie Rule and then Caitlin Hayes. Her ball into the box is deflected by Casperij into the path of Vivianne Miedema who absolutely crushed a volley into the top corner of the net. Again quality players combining to take what was a rare chance to score.
• The fight in our team is always pleasing to see. Even at 2-0 down they continued to battle and eventually got some reward. A late corner wasn’t dealt with by City and Albion retained possession. A smart ball by newly minted Lioness Maisie Symonds into the danger area was clipped home by Rule. It felt like the very least everyone deserved for their efforts.
• As I said above, I thought everyone played well and whilst there were one or two ‘technical errors’ every player justified their place by bringing something positive to the performance.
• I’ll give an example. Could Marit Auee have helped stop Fowler’s ball into the box for their first goal? Possibly, and sure she’d acknowledge that. Was the goal her fault? No. Did she play like an accomplished WSL centre back the entire game? Yes. Did she really have any other trouble with Man City’s talented attack? I don’t believe so. In my opinion, and maybe it’s too early to say this but I’m going to anyway, Marit is the keystone to the entire defence that we need to build around going in to next season.
• I also thought Caitlin Hayes was excellent when she came on for Bergsvand (get well soon Guro!) and only really looked challenged when we had to press high to try and force an equaliser. In particular her passing looks a real weapon from the centre of defence, certainly one that could be utilised to change our style of play when needed or to provide more variety to our attacks.
• In the midfield Symonds and Nadine Noordam more than held their own, honestly, they looked like they belonged battling the likes of Hasegawa and Park. Maisie linked play well and put in some really good tackles alongside her assist, more evidence if needed that the ‘six’ role could be hers going into next season. Nadine is one of those classic midfielders I think every team needs, she just does everything. She can dribble, pass and get involved in the attack, but she is also a hard-tackling high energy presence in front of the defence. These two need to be every game players for us sooner rather than later.
• The attacking unit was industrious I would say, but they’ll be disappointed not to have really tested Keating as often as they should have. Losing Madison Haley (get well soon Madi!) after 20 minutes wasn’t ideal, but Michelle Agyemang brought her trademark intensity from the moment she came on. In truth we can’t always expect Fran Kirby and Nikita Parris to pull something out of their hat and get us a goal, but I’m almost certain they’ll look at their performances yesterday and wonder what could have been.
• Pauline Bremer absolutely tore them a new one down the right when she came on and I still think she needs more of a chance through the middle. Who do you drop or move to accommodate her though? One thing is for certain – she’s still an elite level player.
• I still can’t work Kiko Seike out. When she plays aggressively it has a positive impact far more often than not, but all too often she feels reticent to do so. I’m not sure if that is down to her style, or whether it is the responsibilities she has defensively, or exactly what in truth. All I know is that I see glimpses of real game-changing talent there, but we need it more often and for sustained periods of time. We’re all rooting for you Kiko!
• Despite the result I think almost everyone came away from this match in good spirits. We took a very good team all the way in two games this season, both here and in Manchester. Combine that with the performances against Chelsea I see real optimism that with the system in place for another season and a couple of quality additions, we can compete for a top four finish. After a couple of seasons flirting with relegation, what a welcome change that is!

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Manchester City

• There’s no doubt about it, this was a good time to play the Citizens. Depleted by injury, knackered from four games against Chelsea in the last couple of weeks and lacking form having lost three of them. That being said, talent is permanent, and it was the talent that got them the result yesterday. No arguments there.
• The ability to see us chasing the game and bring on the quality of Kerolin – the NWSL Golden Boot runner up only two years ago by the way – and Miedema – the all time WSL goalscoring record holder – just isn’t something the Albion can compete with at this point.

Other Business

• The attendance at just under 2,500 I thought was a little disappointing given the opposition, but most likely the fact it was Mother’s Day meant many weren’t able to attend or had other plans. It’s a shame, but of course I’m sure we all understand – just an unfortunate quirk of the calendar.
• The referee, Stacey Fullicks, caught some flack off us for (incorrectly) sending Maisie Symonds off against Crystal Palace – however, I found her pretty faultless in this game. Advantages were applied and adhered too, she let the game go for the most part, and wasn’t anywhere near as inconsistent as she was against the Eagles. Well done Stacey, we don’t praise the referees often enough when they do well. Also – the assistant referee – in what I thought was a mirage – flagged for a foul at one point!
• The ‘WSL Swap Shop’ organised by Fan Advisory Board member Lucy Holford went down an absolute storm judging by the amount of people that attended. There were free sticker albums and packs, which are always gratefully received, any many people were trading small pieces of paper and card to their heart’s content. Congratulations on such a successful event Lucy and we’ll definitely be up for more as the hobby grows!

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For more in-depth analysis of this game please do check out the SheGulls Podcast, recorded Monday night, released Tuesday/Wednesday on both Apple and Spotify.