WSL: Brighton end difficult 2023 with disappointment at Aston Villa
The WSL prospects of Brighton Women felt like they were on a knife edge before the 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa. Depending on results elsewhere, the Albion could have ended 2023 on the verge of a coveted top half place or on the cusp of slipping into the dreaded bottom placed relegation spot.
Brighton sat ninth with Villa 10th, meaning this was a game that both managers cited beforehand as an important one to win to set a positive mood going into the winter break.
Pre-match, Villa manager Carla Ward said: “Both teams will want to finish [the year] on a high and that’s why it’s going to be an interesting game.”
By 10pm on Sunday evening, it had ended being a weekend of few positives for the Albion. Earlier wins for Spurs over North London rivals Arsenal and Liverpool over North West rivals Manchester United demonstrated how Brighton have some way to go just to keep up with the current top six – let alone meet the Seagulls’ stated goal of breaking into the top four.
When the team was announced ahead of Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton Women, there was further concern. Mel Phillips could name only four substitutes out of a possible seven – and with no game after this until mid-January, we can safely assume this wasn’t a case of players being rested.
It was only a few weeks ago that a much changed Brighton team’s victory over West Ham in the League Cup had many proclaiming the strength in depth in the squad, but a sudden and growing injury list will no doubt mean Phillips will be glad for the winter break.
There were positives in terms of the starting XI, however. Both Katie Robinson and Jorelyn Carabali returned to the line up in place of the absent Charlize Rule and Emma Kullberg.
With Robinson reinstated, Brighton started with the attacking verve they finished the 2-2 draw against Leicester City with.
Early pressure from the Albion saw a pass aimed for Robinson intercepted by the Villa defence. Robinson’s mere presence among a number of Aston Villa defenders though forced an error from the hosts, who passed the ball straight into the path of Maisie Symonds. She found Elisabeth Terland to fire an ambitious effort from outside the box well over the bar.
That early show of intent was only to give false hope to the Seagulls. Villa took control and remained significantly the better side throughout, dominating proceedings both in terms of territory and possession.
Indeed, the hosts had more than their fair share of chances. This included a disallowed goal for offside in the first half.
A long-distance Rachel Daly shot was parried away by Sophie Baggaley into the path of Canadian international Adriana Leon, whose quick reactions to put the ball in the back of the net were scuppered by the offside flag.
Despite all that Villa pressure, it was the in-form Terland who went closest to breaking the deadlock and adding to her seven WSL goals already this season.
Vicky Losada picked up the ball on halfway and threaded a lovely pass through to Terland. The Norwegian forward’s chipped shot over Anna Leat in the Villa goal hit the top of the crossbar and bounced over and out of play for a goal kick.
Having seen Brighton nearly take an unlikely lead, Villa resumed their domination after half time. The hosts created plenty of chances and will have felt disappointed not to have taken the lead earlier than they did, but for some poor finishing from the likes of Kirsty Hanson.
Hanson squandered several chances before Leon put the ball in the back of the Albion net for the second time – and on this occasion, it counted,
In possession of the ball on the touchline, Leon wriggled her way past Poppy Pattison and slotted underneath Baggaley to make it Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton Women.
It was a deserved lead and one Villa never looked like giving away. Even when Mayumi Pacheco was given a late red card for a second bookable offence after a foul on Robinson, Brighton failed to threaten the home goal, some customarily ambitious shooting from Elisabeth Terland aside.
The resultant 1-0 defeat was a bad ending to a difficult year for Brighton. As Phillips admitted after the match: “Ultimately, in the last couple of games we haven’t emulated the performances that we had in the stretch before that and that’s probably been what’s most difficult to take and what we’ll have to make sure that we iron out going into the new year.”
Phillips also cited that the team had failed to raise themselves for the recent matches against the teams around them, compared to prior games against the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United.
This is a theme she will have been mindful of all season, given she stated one of her key ambitions was for greater levels of consistency – a factor that remains an element of the team’s game which hasn’t yet materialised. But given the amount of change over the summer and injuries since the international break, it isn’t too much of a surprise.
And despite this bad end to 2023, there is still reason for hope of improvement in the new year. Phillips has insisted that patience is required for the desired transformation of performances and to begin building towards the club’s long-term goal of breaking into the top four.
In a world where the need for instant gratification seems constant, patience seems to be even more of a virtue than ever. Nonetheless, this is exactly the time for Brighton not to not panic.
The Villa display may have lacked some of the attacking intent and vigour we have seen at times this season. But it did demonstrate, arguably more importantly, the teams continued defensive improvement.
Brighton withstood a huge amount of Villa pressure and yet remained in the game for its entirety. Sure, this did involve an element of luck due to wasteful finishing from Villa.
Yet whilst conceding 62 percent possession to Villa and 16 shots of which seven were on target – compared to just five shots and one on target from Brighton – the Albion were still only beaten 1-0. A fact which represents a sign of defensive stability which simply didn’t exist last season.
In 2022-23, Brighton conceded a whopping 63 goals in just 22 WSL games – the most any team has conceded without being relegated in WSL history.
In fact, only the relegated Bristol City side of the 2020-21 season has ever conceded more in a WSL season, with 72.
As Phillips went on to say after the Villa game: “It’s a long season and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. We have a run of games that is, I think, in our favour coming back into the new year, but equally later down the stretch as well.”
The Albion have shown huge improvement since last season and can take plenty of positives from the current campaign so far.
Yes, this was another disappointing result – but the bigger picture is there has been enough promise from Phillips’ side to keep the faith in what they are doing and where they are going.
Phil
