Well, well, well, this was a turn up for the books wasn’t it. No – you’re not reading it wrong, your eyesight is fine,, your sanity hasn’t left you – the Albion did indeed go away to Arsenal and beat them resoundingly by two goals in the Women’s FA Cup.

Embed from Getty Images

• For a full recap of the match action courtesy of Luke Nicoli on the Official BHAFC Website click: HERE
• Match highlights are available via the Adobe Women’s FA Cup YouTube channel HERE – as well as the Full Match which is available HERE
• The SheGulls Podcast reviewed the game on Monday night over on the SheGulls YouTube channel: HERE – where you can watch via the Live tab on catch-up any time after broadcast!

As many of you know I don’t write a full match report for cup games and in some ways this is the reason why. There’s something raw about attending one-off all or nothing games without the added complication of having to think about how I might analyse it all after the final whistle. So I won’t say too much about the specifics of the match beyond the fact that Brighton were incredible, every player gave every ounce of effort they had, and the victory was absolutely, entirely, without a doubt, deserved. This was no smash and grab giant killing, this was Brighton putting in a performance worthy of the occasion and reaping the rewards.

What I will talk about is once again this amazing community that has developed over the last few years. If you’re kind enough to think SheGulls had a hand in that then thank you (and a digital tip of the hat), but truly it is about the people. The optimism on the coach on the way up was high, and we knew we’d made it to the big time when Robin Grey from BBC Sussex joined us at Crawley to interview some of the fans on the journey.

We were squeezed into a small stand at the ground, which we have a few qualms about to be addressed later, but in a way it just brought us closer together and as one in unison for chanting and cheering on the team. The pandemonium of celebrating both goals was just sheer joy expressing itself in a physical way. In a time when there’s not much to celebrate in the world, it just felt pure – nobody could take those moments away from us. Along with the celebrations at the final whistle, my observation is that this is what sport does for people, it brings us together and it makes us care beyond our usual four walls. The reason we go to games like Villa away, Man City away, Spurs away, is because we want to experience something like we did at Borehamwood on Sunday. In those cases it didn’t happen, but we stuck with the team and with our community in the hope of better days – and my goodness did we get one.

Embed from Getty Images

In the Semi-Final draw on Easter Monday, Brighton found out that their opponents on the road to Wembley would be Liverpool – unfortunately in Liverpool – but hey you can’t have everything go your way. I still think I’d rather face Liverpool away than either Chelsea or Man City home or away, so we probably got the second best outcome possible. The fixture will be played on either Saturday 9th or Sunday 10th May, but bearing in mind the Seagulls have a fixture on the Wednesday 6th (ironically against Arsenal), the Sunday would surely be preferable.

See you all there right?