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Brighton & Hove Actually Women face West Ham Women in the WSL at the Chigwell Construction Stadium |
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The Seagulls are on the road again. This time we take on the Hammers on a very cold afternoon in Dagenham. It's a new ground for us and first impressions are not good as we are put in an open terrace behind the goal with no seating. There is a huge seated stand at the far end with about 10 people in it. What a farce 🤷. At least we are able to soak up what little sunshine ☀ there is. There are 2 mascots here. Bubbles the Bear 🐻 and Hammerhead the … hammer 🔨. Bubbles gives us the thumbs down 👎. Hammerhead gives us a thumbs up 👍 and gets a kick from Bubbles for being nice. No good deed goes unpunished. There is some great team news. She’s back. Well nearly. Super Fran is on the bench. Kiko starts as does newbie Caitlin Hayes who has replaced or displaced Dotti today. Caitlin played at Stanford Bridge when we watched Chelsea beat them 3-0 back in November. We are unfortunately familiar with one of the Irons. It's Vivienne Asseyi who falls over a lot and screams very loudly every time. The ref shut her up with a yellow card last time we met at the Broadfield. Hope she gets shut down if she starts that nonsense today. Ex Albion keeper Megan Walsh is on the bench. We are well above them in the table but they seem to be a bit of a bogey team. Hope we can turn that around today.
It starts with good tempo and both keepers are forced to make early saves. Melina makes another good save from Riko Ueki only for it to drop to Shekiera Martinez to tap home on 11. 1-0. Boo. It 's soon level again as Nikita levels from Rachel’s low cross on 14 ⚽. 1-1. Back in it. Vicky is booked for holding (looked more like a move out of Jorelyn's Judo Manual). The resulting free kick forces Melina into a good save but she is injured and play stops for a while. There are chances at both ends. They come thick and fast towards the end of the half. The Hammers come so close as they hit the inside of the post and rolls across the goal. Fortunately there is no-one there to capitalise and it’s all even at the break.
It’s West Ham who start better than Brighton and dominate for a while. We have to wait to to 55 when Kiko forces a good save. The play becomes scrappy for a while. The Hammers eventually take the lead as Riko capitalises on an error at the back to score on 64. And they double their advantage on 67 as Rachel gives away a penalty. It's the unusually quiet Asseyi makes it 3-1. Double boo, Long road back now. The Seagulls haven’t given up though. We win a corner on 70. Vicky hits it straight at the first defender. It goes out for another corner which hits the same defender. What an appalling waste. Vicky is soon replaced by Dejana, as is Kiko by Pauline and Jelana by Super Fran. Whoop. She’s back. It gets better from the Seagulls with Pauline on the right and Fran causing problems in the middle. Maddie has had another good game and is replaced by Bex Rayner. She goes on the right displacing Pauline to the left where she is on the wrong foot to get in deep crosses. Again. Bex is lively but we get no more clear chances. A 3-1 defeat for the Seagulls. The warm coach beckons 🚌.
That wasn’t much fun. Well, until the last 10 minutes, again, when the Seagulls we know and love finally appeared from their slumber. The first half was an even battle with chances taken and missed both ways. They got the better of us in the second half as we ran out of ideas and energy again. Dario waited until we were behind, again, inject a bit of energy. The team came back to life with the changes, especially the addition of Fran to the attack. Dejana was a good replacement for Vicky who seems to slow play down too much at times. Dario needs to find something to stop us getting beaten in the second half. Despite the result, we did our bit and made a lot of noise. A song for every player except Caitlin because we don’t have one yet. Bit more to celebrate would have been nice though. The new signings look good and both have Champions League experience . Hopefully we’ll be needing that soon 🙏.
POTM: Newbie Caitlin Hayes gets the award for a solid performance on her first start. She can only get better.
The officials did OK at times but made some odd decisions. Didn’t see the penalty foul so will reserve judgement. Big upgrade on last week though.
The scran’O'meter made do with some Cappacinos ☕ from the kiosk. Was OK, a steady 8 but much appreciated in the cold. Service was a bit fierce 🦁.
Steward Watch returns after a long absence to moan about them being unhelpful and grumpy in equal measure. Good job we had low Essexpectations.
It’s the international break now so we are off up north to catch up with the Super White Army and see how Tranmere are getting on🙏🏼.
Love Tranmerekat 🐾
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| Dull in Dagenham |
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| Watching the action |
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| Sally is here |
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| Home of the Daggers |
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| Freezing in Dagenham |
