Manchester City away isn’t really the ideal follow-up fixture after drawing your opening game at home. Frustrated with a point against Villa after being the better team and with just five days rest compared to your opponents seven – it was always going to be a tough ask to come back with anything from up North. The truth is though, the Albion will feel like they did deserve something, despite a second half that left a lot to be desired.

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

The SheGulls Summary

Brighton & Hove Albion

• This reminded me a lot of the same fixture last year, where City won by one goal, but it really felt like we could have come away with at least a point. It’s not the be all and end all statistic, but to give an example, last season the xG was 3.0 to 0.8, in Friday’s game it was 2.8 to 0.7 – both in favour of the home team.
• There’s no reason to disagree with what the xG tells you. Man City were better on the night, and definitely had better chances to score – but yet – they only won by one single goal. When you delve deeper and actually look at how they scored, you can’t help but wonder with better defending if they couldn’t (or shouldn’t) have been stopped – and therein lies the frustration.
• It was actually the Albion who struck first, a driving run and shot from Michelle Agyemang, who looks much better coming onto the ball as opposed to holding it up, drew a save from Khiara Keating. The rebound fell to Rachel McLauchlan who played a clever pass inside to Fran Kirby and she drilled a shot across goal and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. In just the 14th minute, it sent our fans into absolute raptures.
• Obviously City weren’t going to let that go unanswered and they pushed hard for an equaliser before half time. A combination of poor finishing and excellent goalkeeping from Chiamaka Nnadozie kept them out though and there was genuine belief that the Albion could come away with at least something from this long trip up North.
• A lot can happen in forty-five minutes unfortunately, and where Brighton had ridden their luck and taken their opportunity in the first half, things were about to go downhill and off a cliff in the second. It also didn’t help that talisman and goalscorer Fran Kirby had to be replaced with a back injury.
• City came out with real intention, and 1-0 down at home to Brighton, Andree Jeglertz presumably ‘lit a fire’ in the dressing room shall we say. Albion on the other hand looked as though, to quote Dario, the ‘scoreline kind of spooked’ them and all too often often we were camped in our own half seemingly without any ability to relieve the pressure.
• The equalizer came in the 58th minute when, despite having our entire team behind the ball, nobody put pressure on an incoming cross from Leila Ouahabi. Everyone knows how much of a threat Bunny Shaw is in the air, but she beat Marisa Olislagers with her movement and nodded in a relatively unchallenged header at the back post from short range. All that work undone, with one of the most obvious avenues of attack that City possess.
• Their second goal wasn’t much better in truth. Some neat interplay on the edge of the box drew no less than six players towards the ball – ignoring the City players around them – and one neat through pass left Yui Hasagawa unmarked ten yards out with the simple task of slotting it past Nnadozie. You simply cannot get tunnel vision for the ball at this level and expect it to go unpunished.
• That was the frustration, the team worked hard, they did create a few good chances, they even took the lead – but ultimately they were undone, not by pieces of incredible skill or unstoppable finishes, but by preventable gifts.
• Dario Vidosic described the performance after the break as ‘immature’, he said the team was ‘nowhere near’, and that the play was ‘quite negative even from kick-off’. So who is this author to disagree with him? It would be easier to say we were unlucky, or point to a competitive first half, but he was honest, it wasn’t good enough, and that should be applauded in this day and age where so much smoke is blown up people’s behinds.
• He also alluded to the fact that this wasn’t solely a defensive issue and on that we can agree. The lack of composure throughout the team and wayward passing in the attacking build-up, put Brighton under far more pressure than they needed to be.
• In some ways when the issues can be identified, it makes them easier to rectify, and there’s no doubt we will see an improvement, particularly on that second half, when the Albion face West Ham this weekend. It wouldn’t surprise anyone to see some personnel changes too. Maybe this loss is the reason the likes of Carla Camacho and Rosa Kafaji get a start, perhaps we could even see a return to the three centre-back formation that showed promising signs last season. These next two home games coming up in short order could really tell us where Brighton are this season and maybe even which end of the table we need to be looking up or down at.

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Manchester City

• I can’t give City any higher compliment than the fact that really good teams know how to win when they aren’t at their best. You have to be at it for the full 90 minutes and when Brighton made mistakes or were too negative, they had no hesitation in capitalising on those moments.
• The main players that stood out, despite not perhaps being at their dominant best, were Lauren Hemp and Bunny Shaw. Hemp never stops running, never stops competing, and that wears on you as a defence. The more the game went on the more you feared her pace and skill would cause the Albion to come undone. Shaw was a threat from the start and she just oozes presence and power. Switch off for one second with her around at your peril – Brighton ‘messed’ around and found out – as the kids would say in a slightly more vulgar parlance.
• Despite what happened in the second half, there doesn’t seem to be any real reason to fear them. It will be interesting to see how things play out at the Broadfield later in the season when this Brighton team is further along in their journey.

Other Business

• This was our first away trip of the season, and the first of what should hopefully be club-provided and Kissimmee-subsidised travel to every WSL away game. There were I believe around 25-30 of us on the coach, but there isn’t a doubt in my mind that if the game had remained on a weekend – you could have added 15-20 to that figure. The coach for Arsenal has sold out already, after only being on sale to season ticket holders, so the demand is there – if the logistics work. Take note WSL.
• We were loud and proud and we got excellent feedback from those watching at home, and even from the City support. As always we kept it clean, supported the team over denigrating the opposition, and banged our instruments with both rhythm and vigour.
• On a personal note I want to assure everyone that I have now recovered from a laughing fit suffered when the last person in our party to return from the service station tried to surreptitiously slink back onto the coach – only to bump his head on the overhead storage bins. You have to love an away day right!

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The SheGulls Podcast will be recorded tonight and released a day or two after, so for more analysis of this game and a lowdown on the away travel experience (which sounds like a good 70’s rock band name) – do give it a listen. We’ll also be previewing the match against West Ham on Sunday at the Broadfield and covering any additional Albion news.

See you all soon as always,
Duncan