Brighton blitzed
City rock hosts with SIX goals in 28 minutes
Asecond-half goal blitz, with three in three minutes, saw Manchester city thrash Brighton to reassert their authority in the battle for third place in the table.
The six goals came in a staggering 28 minutes after the sides had gone in level at the break.
city started the day two points behind their opponents, but are now above them in fifth, four points away from the european spots, despite their worst start to a season since 2014.
Injuries have prevented boss Gareth Taylor from fielding his strongest possible XI, but it’s starting to look more promising for a manager who was at risk of the sack earlier in the season.
england stars lucy Bronze and steph houghton are back and Taylor’s summer signings are finally finding form. Two of them, hayley Raso and Vicky losada, scored at Broadfield.
‘We’ve had difficult moments this season where we’ve really been tested as characters,’ said Taylor. ‘What you’re seeing now is character. We’re still nowhere near the finished article and where I need us to be. We’ll always continue to work at that.
‘We want to challenge at the top of the table as much as we can. Things are starting to turn for us a little bit now.’
The seagulls paid for a crazy opening to the second half, which saw them concede three goals in two minutes and 58 seconds.
‘I thought we did really well (in the first half),’ said boss hope Powell. ‘We came out, conceded an own goal and that just set the tone. We capitulated somewhat, lost our way and it’s really hard against a decent team to claw yourself back.’
city started on the front foot as lauren hemp tested Brighton goalkeeper Megan Walsh with a header from alex Greenwood’s corner.
It was the away side who were doing the majority of the pressing as Georgia stanway fizzed a low cross into the hosts’ six-yard box, but Maya le Tissier cleared off the line.
While city continued to enjoy more of the possession, the best chance of the half fell to Brighton. ellie Brazil’s cross found Inessa Kaagman in the box, but her flicked effort spun just wide.
A slice of luck saw city take the lead in the 48th minute when Victoria Williams turned hemp’s cross into her own net.
But there was nothing fortunate about city’s second. Greenwood’s pass found hemp in space down the left and the winger chipped a helpless Walsh from the edge of the box.
It was 3-0 less than a minute later as a scramble in the box saw the ball fall to stanway, who finished from close range.
a fourth came soon after as laura coombs scored the pick of the goals. danielle Bowman carelessly gave possession away inside her own half and coombs struck into the top right corner.
Brighton managed to keep city at bay until the 73rd minute when Raso added her name to the scoresheet. houghton’s long ball was flicked on by ellen White and the australian kept her composure to finish into the bottom corner.
losada became the sixth different scorer as her long-range effort looped over Walsh after a heavy deflection off Bowman.