Unbeaten run comes to an end for Spurs Women at Brighton

It was a frustrating afternoon for Spurs Women as we succumbed to our first Barclays FA Women’s Super League defeat of the season, losing 2-1 to Brighton at the People’s Pension Stadium on Sunday.

Geum-min Lee opened the scoring before Rachel Williams was shown a second yellow card midway through the second half. With the momentum shifting in Brighton’s favour, Victoria Williams doubled their lead and although Kit Graham did pull one back almost instantly, we saw our 100 per cent start to the WSL campaign ended.

Rehanne Skinner made one change from the side that beat Leicester City 2-0 last weekend as Rosella Ayane came into the starting line-up in place of Jess Naz. Kyah Simon also returned to the bench following a hamstring injury.

Williams saw yellow in only the third minute after a coming together with Aileen Whelan was deemed a bookable offence by the referee. 

Chioma Ubogagu had our first opening at goal as Graham sprayed the ball out to her on the left, the forward cut in and saw her strike deflected behind for a corner which was subsequently cleared by the hosts. 

It was Megan Walsh in the Brighton goal keeping the game goalless in the opening stages. Ashleigh Neville’s fierce shot from the edge of the area was pushed wide by the diving keeper while at the other end, despite the offside flag being raised, Becky Spencer made a superb double save, denying both Lee from distance and Inessa Kaagman with a follow-up attempt from close range.

Kaagman then came close to taking the lead for Brighton as her looping shot from outside the 18-yard box struck the crossbar and bounced behind for a goal-kick. However, Brighton did break the deadlock in the 37th minute as we were unable to clear our lines from an initial Lee cross, the forward then latching onto the loose ball and firing home.

We were unfortunate not to be level just before the break as Graham did well to create a yard of space on the edge of the area before wrapping her left foot around the ball, but it ended up just off-target. She then fired another effort towards goal moments later, but again she was unable to trouble Walsh. 

Graham was again causing problems at the start of the second half. She went past two Brighton defenders before whipping a low cross along the six-yard box, only for it to be turned behind by Fliss Gibbons. The resulting corner was met by Williams and saved by Walsh.

It was nearly 2-0 to the home side when Danielle Carter picked up a loose Neville pass and struck the crossbar from long range while at the other end, a perfectly-weighted cross-field pass from Spencer found substitute Angela Addison, she offloaded the ball, but some impressive defensive work from Williams saw Graham’s effort blocked. Addison then had a chance of her own with a mazy run into the Brighton box, however her shot was tame and held by Walsh.

Williams was shown a second yellow card in the 76th minute. She contested for a header with Gibbons, yet the referee adjudged her to have fouled the left-back and we were left with 10 players for the remainder of the contest.

The game seemed to be put out of reach as Williams turned in an Emma Koivisto corner on the second attempt to make it 2-0. However we immediately pulled a goal back as we took the ball from kick-off into the Brighton half and Graham converted.

Although we fought hard in the closing stages, we were unable to pull the scores level. The result means we drop to third in the WSL. Our next game is at home to Charlton Athletic in the Continental League Cup on Wednesday (13 October).

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Match data

Goals: Brighton - Lee 37, Williams 86; Spurs - Graham 88. 

Yellow cards: Brighton - Connolly 70, Green 90+1; Spurs - Williams 3, 76.

Red card: Spurs - Williams 76. 

Referee: Kirsty Dowle.

Venue: The People’s Pension Stadium, Crawley.

Weather: Overcast, 15 degrees.