Brighton vs Tottenham, matchday 14.

Our Lilywhites travelled to the People’s Pension Stadium to take on 7th placed Brighton in matchday 14. Three points separated Tottenham and Brighton as our Lilywhites looked to bounce back from last week’s defeat to Everton.

The FA Cup.

The FA cup is back on April 18th and our Lilywhites will start their campaign away to Reading with kick-off scheduled for 14:00.

Rearranged match.

It was announced earlier that week that our home match with Bristol City which was due to take place on Wednesday, February 12th has been rearranged for Sunday 21st March and the match will be shown live on the FA Player.

Line ups.

Brighton lined up in a 3-5-2 with Walsh in goal, Le Tissier, Kerkdijk and Williams in defence, Brazil down the right-wing, Koivisto, Connolly and Kaagman in the centre of midfield with Simpkins down the left-wing. Lee and Whelan were upfront for the seagulls.

Tottenham went for a 4-2-3-1 with Mikalsen in goal, Morgan in at right-back, Zadorsky and McManus in the centre of defence with Worm in at left-back. Percival and Kennedy ahead of the defence with Addison down the left-wing Graham in the centre of midfield with Davison down the right-wing and Ayane in the number 9 role.

Match report.

Brighton came out looking to avoid a 4th consecutive defeat to Tottenham and showed they were unwilling to take any risks by lining up with 5 midfielders making it difficult for our Lilywhites to threaten the Brighton goal. Tottenham enjoyed most of the possession but was unable to create a clear chance until the 18th minute when Kit Graham stole the ball in midfield which came to Ayane but Ayane rushed and shot from distance and put her effort wide of Walsh’s goal. Brighton almost took the lead in the 21st minute when Brazil centred into the Tottenham box finding Koivisto who shot from point-blank range but Mikalsen stood strong to deny the Finnish International. Tottenham came right back at Brighton and 2 minutes later came close to breaking the deadlock after Kennedy crossed from the right into the Brighton box but her cross was a little too hard for Addison to reach. Brighton kept trying to catch Tottenham on the counter as Tottenham continued to dominate possession. Great passing by Tottenham in the 38th minute found Morgan down the right who centred into the Brighton box finding Davison but Davison took a little too long to control the ball and Williams got the ball away before Davison had a chance compose herself. Tottenham had the best chance of the game in the 46th minute after Percival’s corner was met by Zadorsky but her header was cleared off the line by Koivisto. Tottenham claimed the ball had crossed the line but due to not having goal-line technology in the WSL we will never know if Tottenham were denied a good goal or not.

Second half.

The second half started again with most of the play taking place in the centre of the field as both sets of midfielders tried to break the other down. Tottenham came close again in the 56th minute when a Siri Worm corner was met by Kennedy who headed it and it seemed to strike a Brighton players arm in the box by referee Stacey Pearson was not interested and let play continue. 3 minutes later Tottenham again came close when Worm took a Tottenham free-kick which found Zadorsky in the box but her effort was smashed against the Brighton crossbar as the seagulls were let off the hook again.

Tottenham were punished 4 minutes later when against the run of play Brighton scored with a volley by Kaagman after Tottenham were caught short at the back. Substitute Rianna Dean had a positive impact when coming on and was brought down on the edge of the box by Kerkdijk as she looked to go one on one with Walsh. Worm took the Tottenham free-kick but her effort was way wide of Walsh’s goal. 4 minutes later Tottenham were punished again when another Brighton counter-attack lead to Kaagman’s and Brighton’s second of the game after a McManus clearance fell straight to Kaagman who shot inside the box beating Mikalsen and giving Brighton their second against the run of play. Tottenham responded right away and a minute later Tottenham earned a corner which was taken by Worm which was punched away by Walsh but only as far as Green who shot but her effort was cleared off the Brighton line again denying Spurs. Tottenham kept pushing forward, believing they could still get something from the game and in the 79th minute again on the counter Brighton hit the bar when Heroum’s effort was well saved by Mikalsen pushing her effort against the bar, the rebound fell to Connelly whose effort also hit the bar as Tottenham survived a late scare again against the run of play. Tottenham kept pushing looking for goals and looking more like the home team, whilst Brighton looked scared and only attacked on the counter as they looked to protect their 2 goal lead. In the 91st minute, Kit Graham stole a ball in midfield and shot from distance but her effort struck the Brighton crossbar again as Brighton hung on in the final minutes to take all 3 points.

Player of the match.

Our player of the match is an easy one this week, even though the team gave it their all our player of the match goes to Captain Zadorsky. Zadorksy was a rock in the defence, provided organisation in the defence and attacked the Brighton goal and had an effort cleared off the line before the break and hit the bar in the second half.

Post match analysis.

When it’s not your day defeats are harder to take, there was just one team that wanted to play and that created the most chances but when the ball just doesn’t want to go in it’s hard to criticise the performance. I do still believe some players are not WSL material and may be better suited at Championship level such as Josie Green who lost the ball in midfield leading up to Kaagman’s 2nd goal and Rosella Ayane who just is not up to the task of leading our front line. I am interested to see what happens in the summer when Skinner can bring in her own players and start building her squad. I think for now Quinn needs to start playing more minutes and maybe move Graham into the number 9 role.

All in all the performance can’t be faulted, the team gave everything but luck was just not on their side. We thought Tottenham would have easily taken points against Villa, Everton and Brighton and instead are on a 4 match winless streak with Reading awaiting us next weekend. We need to start worrying because yes we have 2 games in hand but so do bottom placed Bristol, If Bristol wins their two games in hand they will go onto 12 points the same as our Lilywhites. We have a tough month coming up Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea awaiting us back to back from March 28th. The only positive is if Bristol wins their two matches and we lose we face Bristol in 2 weeks so victory there should ensure our safety but nothing can be taken for granted in which will surely see the title and relegation battle go down to the wire. We need to remain positive and have faith in the team and hope we can start picking up some points to avoid relegation.

Next match.

Our next match takes place next Sunday 14th away to Reading. The match will take place at 12:30 and can be seen on the FA Player COYS!!!!