Women’s Super League: Brighton can’t hang on to lead as Tottenham hit back at Amex

It was under blue skies that Albion hosted Tottenham with both teams were looking for their second win in three games in the 23/24 WSL campaign, with the Seagulls certainly looking to avoid a repeat of last season’s 8-0 thrashing by Spurs a year ago.

It seemed they were certainly going to do just that when Maisie Symonds’ corner kick in just the 7th minute was headed home by Brighton’s leading scorer Elisabeth Terland.

With neither teams’ attacking players inspiring many promising attacks, the first half was played mostly in the midfield. Tottenham started to become more threatening towards the end of the half, with a long range rocket from Drew Spence rifling off the crossbar. The rebound was followed up by Tottenham forward Martha Thomas, whose half volley nestled into the bottom corner of the Brighton goal. With the equaliser coming in first half stoppage time the atmosphere certainly seemed to have been sucked out of the stadium as the whistle sounded.

The second half was very similar to the first, with neither team creating many clear chances. However, in the 65th minute a rocket was released from the foot of Grace Clinton from over 25 yards out. The shot fired into the top corner in what will most certainly be a contender for goal of the season.

With home fans’ hopes of a late equaliser slowly fading as the game entered five minutes of added time, Tottenham secured the three points in style with a third goal.

Substitute Jessica Naz latched on to a through ball and weaved her way past defenders Kullberg and Bergsvand to enter the right side of the 18-yard box. She played the ball back to Ria Percival, whose first-time shot ricocheted off Bergsvand and past Brighton keeper Nicky Evrard.

It leaves Albion 10th in the 12-team league and Brighton manager Melissa Phillips spoke after her team’s consecutive defeats in the WSL: “We’re disappointed for sure, I think Tottenham adapted really well to our press in the first half and we knew that we needed to make some changes at half time, so clearly we’re disappointed to not go in at 1-0 up at half time.

"I think we came out quite positively in the second half but ultimately we conceded goals in really tiny moments and I think that second goal really sucked the wind out of our sails.”

She went on to explain her reasoning for substituting goalscorer Elisabeth Terland in the 46th minute – and her pleasure at seeing a large crowd: “She has a niggle that we’re managing so it’s a shame we had to take her off earlier than we would’ve liked. I’d imagine she’d be back for the game against Chelsea but we’ll have to see how she is.

“It’s fantastic to see a record crowd (6,951) and we hope to see many of them back at Crawley when we’re at home at the beginning of November. It’s great to see the support today, I think it’s a reflection of the growth of Brighton as a footballing city but also the growth of the women’s game so it’s great to see all of the excitement around it.”

Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn spoke about his team’s win and their start to the season: “The main thing I’m very pleased with is how we play football, getting a last minute goal today shows how our players are really brave.

"The three points are of course very important for the table but the players buying into what we want to do is the most important thing to me. It has been a wonderful week with three wins and 12 goals, and I think that’s what the Tottenham fans want. We stuck to the plan for 90 minutes today and kept going, despite Brighton scoring an early goal.

“For 8 weeks now I think we’ve had really good training sessions and every game we will be even better. The players are just starting to get to know each other and in the long run I think they’ll be able to take it to another level. The sky’s the limit.”