The players were prepared, the stage was set, all Brighton had to do was exact their revenge on Liverpool at the Amex and bring down the curtain on their indifferent run of form. Alas, twas not to be, the marauding Reds from the North had their way not onth, but indeed twith, and henceforth began to perform a series of amusements not seen often outside the circus tent. Unfortunately, such comedic pratfalls and feigned affliction, was actually pretty bloody annoying as a fan of the Albion, and hitherto into sixth place we fell.

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

The SheGulls Summary

Brighton & Hove Albion

• Unfortunately this was another Brighton outing where the team self-sabotaged themselves during a sluggish start to the game, and just couldn’t come back quickly or effectively enough to snatch even a point.
• Their first goal came after 65 seconds. Olivia Smith meanders down the right-hand side of the pitch, essentially all by herself, whilst the action is on the opposite flank. Ceri Holland plays a driven cross-field ball which is taken down by Smith who has far too much time to control and slide a cool finish past Melina Loeck. I don’t know whether someone should have been tracking her, I don’t know if Poppy Pattinson just didn’t see her – but whatever the case, you don’t let the opposition’s best player have an opportunity like that, and you definitely don’t let them have it mere seconds into the game.
• Once again Albion put themselves behind the eight ball early on, but we’ve seen them come back before. The crowd were chastened a little, but still in fine voice – so here we go right? Well, not so much. In fact Liverpool had six more shots by my reckoning before Brighton had their first after 25 minutes.
• They did grow into the game and the action became more even as the half ticked on – but what couldn’t the SeaGulls afford to do before the break? Yep, you guessed it, concede another goal – which they did – and it was another mistake from passing the ball around at the back unnecessarily.
• Unfortunately the responsibility for this one has to fall on Maisie Symonds. Her casual pass to Guro Bergsvand was wide of the mark and fell straight to Holland again, who rolled the ball across to Leanne Kiernan at the far post to tap home a simple finish.
• Dario Vidosic didn’t waste any time though and made three substitutions to start the second forty-five with Pattinson, Nadine Noordam and Rachel McLauchlan making way for Marisa Olislagers, Dejana Stefanovic, and Kiko Seike.
• The changes seemed to have the desired effect as a run by Seike down the right yielded a cross which made it all the way over to the back post where Michelle Agyemang was waiting to nudge the ball home. Barely two minutes on the pitch together and the Albion had a goal back.
• I’d love to say that was a game-changer, a momentum-shifter, but it wasn’t in truth. Liverpool ratcheted up their tried and tested tactics of wringing every second they could get out of stoppages in play and claiming they needed urgent medical help – only to make a miraculous recovery after taking the maximum amount of time possible to recover or get off the pitch. Ultimately they won the game though, they took home the three points and though I hate these so-called ‘dark arts’ of football, you can afford to employ them if the other team gifts you a two goal head start.
• By my calculations, when the opposition score first, we are 1W-3D-9L in the league. Now against top teams perhaps you expect that, but some of those games were against the likes of West Ham, Leicester, Liverpool (twice) and Spurs at home. You might also be able to work out that the opponent has therefore scored first in 13 of our 19 matches so far, a pretty inauspicious stat in it’s own right. To take this team forward, we have to start more games on the front foot and seize the initiative before the opposition inevitably do.
• The defence is so Jekyll and Hyde they’re almost indistinguishable. For the most part they handled Liverpool pretty well, Loeck made a couple of good saves, but nothing too out of the ordinary – yet we conceded two goals that you’d be annoyed about if they happened on the training pitch never mind in an actual game. Not covering or marking the oppositions’ star player after one minute of the game is a pretty big no-no, as is providing an assist for the them when you’re trying to force play out from the back.
• Whilst we’re on the subject, I don’t agree that playing out from the back is ‘nonsense’ as some people say. It works if you have the personnel and the skill – heck Arsenal shredded us at Borehamwood with that tactic last season. However, it has to create more goals than it does concede – otherwise what are we doing? Instead of using scissors should I throw a sharp knife at something to cut it because it might work occasionally and it looks cool – whilst acknowledging more often than not it either won’t work or it will cut both the paper and a chunk off the nearest table leg? That’s probably a bad analogy, but you see my point. Perhaps some changes will made in the offseason to either adapt the style, or bring in players who have expertise in that specific area.
• I think what I find most disappointing at the moment is – and I said this so many times last year I lost count – I don’t know what we are. Too often it feels like we’re playing noughts and crosses when the opposition is playing chess, and that feeling of developing a clear playstyle we had at the start of the season has waned considerably since the winter break. Of course there have been injuries, but every team suffers from those and in theory we have a good enough squad to weather them. Who were we missing against Liverpool? Dario often says the table only matters on the last day of the season, and he’s right, but as it stands we look closer to being in 8th than we do 5th, and on that basis, should we be looking at this season in a different light?
• Come on Albion, prove the doubters wrong – let’s get 6 points minimum from the last three games, finish as high as we can and give ourselves a real platform to go into next season with!

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Liverpool

• They got the 3 points so mission accomplished I guess and I’m sure their fans had a good journey home off the back of it. However the manner in which they won was so anti-football I cannot in all good conscience leave it there. Every nudge, every niggle, every 50/50 and their players went down like they’d been sniped from the crowd – so much so that when Olivia Smith was actually injured, the crowd simply had no empathy left to give.
• Gamesmanship is one thing, but if simulation is cheating, which I believe it is (as per the rulebook) – then you can see what I’m getting at. From the extreme time wasting, to the clear intent to get our players carded whilst grinding even more seconds off the clock, there was no element of ‘dark arts’ they left unexplored. All of which led to, no word of a lie, the worst game of football I have seen live in recent memory.
• This isn’t aimed simply at Liverpool, but the WSL and wider women’s game has a problem. If teams continue to behave in this way and utilise these methods as a genuine tactic – don’t be surprised to see attendances dwindling. We all watch football to be entertained, this was a trudge, an effort to stay absorbed in for the full match – and I’m a lifelong Albion fan. If that’s happening to me, how in the hell can we keep young kids engaged? If they see ‘injured’ players rolling around for 2 or 3 minutes, gaining an advantage from doing so, and then popping back up fit as a fiddle – what sort of example does that set? Shouldn’t those involved in the women’s game aim to be better? A debate for another time perhaps…
• Olivia Smith is an excellent player, and she could go on to even bigger and better things. Whatever you think of her propensity to go down incredibly easily, nobody would wish injury on anyone. However, this narrative from the press that she is a ‘target’ or suffered from a ‘succession’ of fouls, the final one being ‘cynical’ is borderline libelous. First of all, of course teams will look to shut down the best opposition players – did Real Madrid ever say, well Lionel Messi’s a bit good, leave him alone lads, make sure not go too hard on him – spare me that nonsense. A ‘succession’ of fouls turned out to be two – yep before the ‘cynical’ tackle she had been fouled a total of once – and indeed had committed one foul herself. Did Poppy go in heavy, yes, was it mistimed, yes, but she’d already got caught by Smith once and her instinct at the time was (I suspect) – this ball and/or player isn’t getting past me again. That’s part of the game, it’s not cynical, it’s football. She got booked and that was the correct decision.
• You need only look at the disciplinary table to see Smith is a player who uses her physicality to try and bully defenders, and to be honest she’s good at it. Only one player has more yellow cards than her in the WSL this season, Ruby Mace with 7, who is one of the best midfield enforcers (shall we say) in the game at the moment. Other players like Smith on 6 include, Erin Cuthbert (another tough tackler), Gabby George and Sara Holmgaard (both full-backs). So to pretend that she’s this innocent slip of a girl who is simply beaten and battered every game is absolute biased drivel of the highest order – and the national media are the worst culprits. Can’t we all just agree she’s an incredible talent who has a physical edge to her game which she tries to utilise to her advantage?

Other Business

• I have yet to see an attendance figure reported which rather tracks with unofficial estimates that it was below 4,000. If that is the case then that would be the lowest attendance at the Amex since the start of the 2021/22 season and prior to the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 victory. Whilst that would be disappointing, the fact that the game took place on Easter weekend coming off the school holidays means a good deal of fans would have had other plans. If and when the attendance figure is officially released I will be happy to update this record, in the meantime I wouldn’t be overly concerned.
• In actuality I thought the fans were in fine voice again – though the singing section had clearly been populated by a good deal of people who just wanted to admire the view from the halfway line. The chants were loud and frequent (despite us going down so early), and many times they permeated the entire crowd which was great to both see and hear. It was also pleasing to hear some chants arise organically from other sections of the crowd, which is ultimately what we all want to see – fans who feel empowered to start singing, who are then supported by others joining in.
• Claire held down the SheGulls fort in the Fan Zone on the East Concourse more than capably in my absence and the engagement and interest she told me about prior to my arrival sounded absolutely worthwhile. Massive thanks to Claire for stepping up, and to everyone else who helped out on the day including Aby and Marion (AKA ‘Mother’).
• A couple of people came over to let us know they listen to the podcast and to keep up the good work in general. I know all of us involved in SheGulls never tire of hearing that, and though we have a good time doing what we do, to hear praise and encouragement from the people we do it for, is so affirming. We thank you back with all our hearts. Oh and Tim – thanks for the Revels!

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As the youth like to say ‘we move’ and in this case onwards to Everton which promises to be a challenging but winnable fixture. Claire and I (Duncan) will be on the fan-led coach so generously sponsored by our very own Honorary Board Member, Jo Davis – so look out for some potential live content from that trip on social media!

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