Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 West Ham Utd

  • by Richard Johnson
  • Monday, 6th September 2021

A sun drenched Amex Stadium welcomed the return to league action for West Ham United Women on Sunday.

It was the visitors who showed the early promise, with Adriana Leon the focal point of the Hammers attack. And it was the lively Canadian forward who crafted the Hammers first real chance of the game.


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Having found space behind the Seagulls' back line, Leon’s tame effort was easily collected by Walsh in the hosts' goal.

The first quarter of the match proved a balanced affair, but once again it was Leon who was proving the most likely to create something, her searching cross finding the head of Mel Filis. The midfielder was unable to direct her effort with any real power.

As the game approached the half-hour mark, a gloriously struck, long range shot from Leon cannoned off the Brighton crossbar, with Walsh watching helplessly. The Irons were well on top at this point and it felt as though the mounting pressure from the visitors would soon lead to the opening goal.

However, the game was flipped on its head moments later, when Hammers defender Cissoko was somewhat harshly adjudged to have deliberately handled the ball in the area from a Brighton attack.

The referee had no hesitation in reaching for the card and Cissoko was off. Dutch midfielder Kaagman slotted home the subsequent penalty.

And the shell shocked Hammers found themselves two down moments later, after a speculative effort bounced awkwardly, hitting Grace Fisk and deflecting into the path of Guenmin Lee. The Brighton attacker had a simple task to slide the ball past a despairing Arnold in the Hammers goal.

The Irons regrouped quickly and a shot from defender Gilly Flaherty narrowly missed the target as the game approached the break.

West Ham had spent the majority of the first half dominating possession, but with no real cutting edge to their efforts.

HALF-TIME: Brighton 2 – 0 West Ham Utd


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Brighton began the second half determined to capitalise on their advantage, with Kaagman again going close from range.

Needing to change things up, Ollie Harder switched to having two up front and Claudia Walker almost dragged her side back into the contest, her shot flying over the bar.

The game then settled down into a fairly tepid affair, neither side really able to play their way through a congested midfield. With little of note happening to entertain the 2k plus crowed in the Sussex sunshine, Lisa Evans managed to break through the Seagulls defence, only to see her effort land narrowly wide of Walsh’s left hand post.

Brighton were by now re-establishing their foothold in the game and Carter was inches away from springing the Hammers offside trap, only to see the flag raised on the touchline.

Unable to find the third goal to really kill off the visitors, Brighton were no content to keep the ball and frustrate Ollie Harder’s team, as they looked to see out the contest.

Having controlled the early stages of the match, the Hammers must be given some credit for denying their hosts the opportunity to add to their tally, the ten women defended resolutely and held firm to keep the score line reasonably respectable.

But ultimately the Hammers were left to rue an unpredictable spell of bad luck in the first half, that saw them concede two quickfire goals.

The opportunity to put matters right will come this weekend, when the Irons welcome Aston Villa to the Chigwell Construction stadium in their first home outing of the season.

Brighton: Walsh, Le Tissier, Kerkdijk, Williams (Gibbons 67), Koivisto, Brazil, Whelan (Simpkins 78), Connolly, Kaagman, Lee (Symonds 55), Carter (Green 78)

Subs not used: Bowman, Babajide, Green, Stenson, Robinson, Adabowale

Goals: Kaagman, Lee

West Ham Utd: Arnold, Wyne, Flaherty, Cissoko, Fisk (Parker 45), Evans, Stringer, Filis (Longhurst 45), Hasegawa, Leon, Walker.

Subs not used: Leat, Garrad, Cairns, Joel.

Booked: Longhurst (55), Stringer (60)

Sent off: Cissoko (33)

Speaking to West Ham's website after the game, manager Olli Harder was left frustrated with how events unfolded.


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“The [red card] incident pretty much killed the game for us - we were on top up until that point so it’s frustrating," he said. We wanted to come here today and pick up some points, but that’s difficult to do when you only have 10 players on the pitch.

“The bottom line is I think we go on and win the game if we have eleven players out there, so I’m not happy with the fact that you get a penalty and a red card for what I can tell was not a deliberate handball."

“On the positive side we showed a lot of character to be out there for 60 minutes and create the chances that we did. I think anyone watching the game could arguably say that it could have finished 2-2, we had chances and we made the effort to get out to them and not sit back.

“It’s a huge credit to the girls but we’re not surprised because we know that we’ve recruited some excellent personalities and the way they communicated and worked together was important to me.

"So overall, I'm very unhappy with the fact that we haven’t come away with anything but happy with reaction of the players and their commitment.

“ I’ve said previously that football is to be enjoyed and for us today it was about making our supporters proud. It was testing circumstances for us today, but hopefully the supporters can see the amount of effort these players are putting in to represent the West Ham badge.”

“Based off the performance that we put in today, there’s a lot of positives to draw on ahead of Aston Villa next weekend. What we’ve seen from the team today are the values that we want to represent at the football club and under trying circumstances we really took it to Brighton,” he concluded.

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