Powell calls on fans to return with Brighton feeling at home
Moving this game from Crawley more than quadrupled Brighton’s average gate and Hope Powell, the manager, wants their first league win of the season to swell the flow of fans up the A23 for women’s fixtures.
A salty seaside atmosphere confronted Birmingham City as 4,130 sang Sussex by the Sea and drove Powell’s side on to a convincing victory, two weeks after they beat Arsenal on penalties in the League Cup in front of “more than a thousand” in Crawley. Lea Le Garrec, who struck the decisive penalty that day, followed it with a sumptuous long-range goal against Birmingham, who also conceded a spot-kick and a headed goal to Kayleigh Green.
The vexed question of where Women’s Super League games should be played – men’s stadium or satellite ground – remains lively and unresolved.
Brighton are among the most enthusiastic supporters of women’s and girls’ football. This week the club promised a new hub for the female teams as part of a £25million development at their Lancing training centre. Brighton women currently train across the road from the Amex at Sussex University, but that will change.
Michelle Walder, a club director, says: “We have a one club mantra here, and while the team has brilliant training facilities at the Amex and Sussex University, the investment will bring all the club’s teams together at the training complex on one site, in a world-class facility.”
Tickets here were £3 for adults and £1 for over-65s and under-18s.
Eventually the women’s teams will surely play in the Brighton and Hove area too, with more games likely to be scheduled at the Amex, especially if crowds continue to grow. Powell, though, has enough on her hands keeping the team competitive. Would playing in Brighton produce regular 4,000 gates? “I don’t know,” she said, “but we’re at the Amex Stadium, and who wouldn’t want to come to this stadium? It’s fantastic. I have to say thank you to the crowd, they were very, very lovely, gave us a lot of encouragement.
“The girls wanted to play for them as much as themselves. We would just say – come along to Crawley, we need the support. But very thankful they came out today. It’s a big win, the way the table’s sitting. We’re still in a dogfight.”
Brighton had scored twice in five league games, so a 3-0 win was especially uplifting. “The nice thing about today is we scored from open play,” Powell said. “Lea’s goal was fantastic, so it’s quite encouraging.
“Importantly, we didn’t concede and even more importantly we got the three points. It’s a really good day for us today.”
Le Garrec, from Guingamp in France, was Brighton’s fourth signing in the summer transfer window and has improved the team’s midfield.
Powell said: “She’s highly technical, gives us a bit more creativity. That’s why we went for her, that’s why we got her at the club. Fabulous player, and she’s fitted in very well.”
Green, too, was on top form and said: “We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves in the last few weeks and, when we played Arsenal, we played with a bit of freedom. It showed we could do it. Hope said just ‘go out there and play football and enjoy it’. We’re starting to do it and build on that.”
Powell called this “arguably” Green’s “best game in a Brighton shirt”.
At least five fine individual performances shaped this Brighton victory – from Le Garrec, Kirsty Barton, Emily Simpkins, Green and Aileen Whelan – against a Birmingham side who were ponderous moving the ball out from the back and lacked conviction.
At times, their marvellous captain, Brianna Visalli, tried to play Brighton on her own, but there was much to disconcert Marta Tejedor, their manager, in this comprehensive defeat.
Brighton’s Ellie Brazil ended the game on crutches after earning Green’s 15th-minute penalty and injuring herself in the process. But otherwise it was a day to parade this Brighton team’s potential to become part of the whole culture of supporting this club. The show may bounce between Crawley and Brighton, but turning up is rewarded in both places. Proselytising is a lot more fun when it brings three points.
Brighton and Hove Albion