After a solid performance against Arsenal, Arturo’s Army headed up to the Midlands on Sunday to take on Birmingham. Arguably an early ‘must win’ game, particularly if the club harbour lofty ambitions for the season, Albion didn’t have it all their own way. A mistake at the back and a well-worked move sent the Seagulls two down and with a mountain to climb. Fortunately a couple of well-timed substitutions sparked Brighton back into life late on and they were able to rescue a draw with the very last kick of the game.

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• For a full recap of the match action on the Official BHAFC Website click: HERE
• Match highlights are available via the Sky Sports WSL YouTube channel: HERE
• The SheGulls Podcast will be reviewing the game on Monday night from 9pm over on the SheGulls YouTube channel: HERE – where you can watch via the Live tab or on catch-up any time after broadcast!

Brighton & Hove Albion

• Overall it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Brighton played well below par – particularly for the first hour of the game. The team went on to demonstrate the grit and determination required to turn the scoreline around and salvage a point, but two things can be true. Only one single starter scored over a 7 on Sofascore (based on metrics not opinions) and that was Kiko Seike with a 7.1 rating. There is no way this team, with the acknowledged lack of an experienced goal-scoring striker, can give any team a 2-goal head start. No disrespect to Birmingham, but they were fortunate it was the Blues and not a more established WSL side.
• The first point of interest came in just the 4th minute. A corner from the right lands admi a bundle of bodies and deflects out to Moeka Minami who tucks the ball home. The referee had an age to think about it and then decided – no goal – there was a foul somewhere in the melee. Except if you watch it, there didn’t really seem to be much of a foul, if any, by a Brighton player at all. There is of course a bit of pushing and pulling – but as ProRef reminded all referees recently, not all contact is a foul and there should be a high threshold on stopping play for an offence. More on the referee later sadly.
• Birmingham’s first goal is just a flat out mistake by Caitlin Hayes and she’d likely admit that herself. She allows a short pass to come across her body and run away slightly, only to see Oceane Hurtre steal the ball, drive forward unopposed and tuck it past Chiamaka Nandozie with aplomb. A gut punch after 8 minutes.
• For the remainder of the half it must be said that Brighton never really got going. More possession, passes, territory – yes, but no real genuine scoring threat. In fact during the entire first half they registered just two shots on target despite being down 1-0 for the majority of it.
• Then the inevitable happened just 6 minutes into the second half. A simple one-two in the midfield set Hurtre away down the right again with time and space to run. For some reason the entire Albion team seemed to be on their heels as the French midfielder picked out Lily Crosthwaite at the far post who fired low past Nnadozie to put the Blues two up.
• It didn’t take long for Arturo to realise that the Albion needed far more attacking intent and he introduced both Olivia Garcia and Olaug Tvedten on 57 minutes. Immediately their pace and energy seemed to galvanise the team and opportunities to respond started to open up.
• It still took until the 77th minute to bear fruit though as a deft pass from Madison Haley set Tvedten up with a golden chance. She fired almost straight at former Brighton keeper Sophie Baggaley, who was only able to palm the powerful strike back out. Cometh the hour, cometh the OG, no not own goal, but Olivia Garcia, on the spot to tuck the rebound into the net and finally give the travelling fans a ray of hope.
• From then on Brighton began to turn the screw, but still the seconds ticked away and the final whistle inched ever nearer. In what had to be the last attack of the game a long pass forward found the head of Haley who nodded the ball down to Fran Kirby. The England legend played a beautiful pass with the outside of her boot to set Seike away down the right flank. Just as the Japanese forward appeared to have run out of room she unleashed a low driven shot from an acute angle which somehow squirmed in past Baggaley – levelling the score with no time left for a response.
• Nnadozie had a good game and made a couple of outstanding saves to avoid Birmingham going further in front – nothing less is expected of a player of her quality. The defence looked exposed at times and it bears consideration whether three at the back works with Olislagers and Seike covering the wide areas. Sometimes it did, several times it didn’t. Hopefully just teething problems with developing Arturo’s style of play. The central midfield trio looked solid enough, although the passing quality and accuracy was questionable at times. Unfortunately they got bypassed during several Birmingham attacking moves, including the second goal, and they need to work on that moving forward. The attack was Jekyll & Hyde, as it often is. Kirby often gets dragged into the middle third in order to have an impact on the game, Seike and Olislagers have to be up and back down the wings constantly, leaving Haley ploughing a lone furrow up front most of the time. It’s not working. In two consecutive weeks now the American has looked in her element when she’s had players up and around her to play alongside. That has to happen more, even if that forces a change of structure or tactics. Brighton simply do not have the firepower or squad configuration to play a single striker up top on their own, so the sooner that Haley, or whomever plays there, has some real help – the better.
• The fight from this team is incredible, they never give up and that is a massive credit to the themselves, the staff and the club. You need that grit, that never say die attitude, but you also need to win games comfortably and not hand the opposition the advantage in the first place. Very, very rarely does a team that relies on sheer guts end up near the top end of the table when all is said and done.
• Some context is required overall. Arturo Ruiz has had probably less than 10 full training sessions to try and build his ethos into the team. The Blues are also not the WSL2 team they once were, having acquired several established internationals and WSL-experienced players. Are they also a team we should be beating home and away though? Yes – and that’s the hard part, and ultimately, that’s football.

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Birmingham

• Birmingham can take away a lot of positives from this match. They can certainly compete with the majority of teams in this league if they can compete against Brighton – it may just be a case of learning how to close out these games and take all three points. The ability to score goals is what will keep them up and they’ve not had much trouble there so far.
• Player of the match was undoubtedly Oceane Hurtre who was a threat all game down the right-hand side. She had opportunities to double her tally and nearly assisted another couple that were spurned by teammates. If she continues at this pace (pun intended) the big guns will be keeping close tabs on the former PSG player, ready to swoop in.
• From various reports inside the stadium, the Birmingham fans were excellent, very helpful and welcoming – so thank you to all who came and interacted with our crazy bunch!

Other Business

• Unfortunately there has to be some discussion about the refereeing. In particular the decision to disallow the goal early on and latterly a really strong penalty shout.
• On balance Moeka’s goal should have been allowed to stand. There does not appear to be a clear and obvious foul, just players bumping into each other and going to ground. Even if it arguably could have been a foul – the whistle is not blown at the time, as the goal is scored, or even immediately afterwards. Nearly 20 seconds elapse between the alleged ‘foul’ and the award of the free kick which just isn’t good enough. Two points here. The referee should be asking – why can’t I award this goal? If she didn’t feel there was a foul at the time – the answer is simple – its a goal – if she did feel it was a foul – where’s the whistle? Secondly, it has been reiterated to referees repeatedly to have a high threshold on fouls and that not all contact is an offence. To award a foul after such a period of time begs the question, what made her blow the whistle then and not at any point beforehand – other than the fact Brighton go on to score? Nobody is accusing anyone of anything untoward, but I’m sure the club will be seeking some answers from ProRef.
• To this writer’s eye there was a clear handball offence that was missed too. Seike drives into the box and from relatively short range, her cross hits the Birmingham player’s hand. Ordinarily I’d say accidental no penalty, but the defender was waving her arms around like one of those wacky inflatable tubes outside an American car dealership. She is absolutely 100% trying to make herself bigger and in doing so should be penalised for handball. Here’s the rule from the IFAB website: It is an offence if a player touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised. Seems pretty clear no?
• It was apparently a bad day all round because Birmingham fans also thought the officiating team had a bad day – but in the Albion’s favour!
• As always the Albion travelling support did us proud taking around 70 fans up to England’s second city, many of whom were on the Kissimmee-sponsored official club coach. They were heard loud and proud both in the stadium and on the television!

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The SheGulls Podcast, where we will discuss the Birmingham game and look ahead to Aston Villa next week, will be live on Monday @ 9pm via YouTube – and available subsequently on demand by clicking on the ‘Live’ tab on the channel menu.

Audio of the entire episode will then be released later in the week via Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

See you all soon!