Tranmerekat on Tour: Waking for the Hammers to Fall

Brighton & Hove Albion Women face West Ham Women in the WSL at the Victoria Road

The Seagulls are away to the Hammers on an Autumn night in Dagenham. Brighton have 2 wins in the bank so far but are smarting after losing away to Spurs on Saturday. They are 6th in the table having beaten tonight's opponents who sit bottom on zero, nought, nada, nil points. Both teams are on 3 points in the cup with the Hammers leading on goal difference. With the 3 Championship , sorry, WSL 2 clubs in the group, it’s likely that one of tonight's teams will top the group. So this is the decider. Winner takes it all. We would like to thank our hosts for being a lot more accommodating tonight and letting us sit down. Back in February they made us stand on the open terrace behind the goal. Their plan to freeze us that time failed because we enjoyed a lovely bit of late winter sunshine. There was no fan coach today so it was just the 24 stops on the District Line from Victoria to Dagenham East. The club house is open to away fans but is hosting a wake. Whether it is for a Daggers fan or West Ham's league form, we didn’t want to ask. There is a really changed line up for tonight. Big cheers for Baggers in goal. Love her. The defence is a lopsided back 3 /12. Caitlin is in the middle with Captain Carabali on the right and the right footed Mpome on the left. A bit further up on the left is Rachel McLauchlan playing as a wing back instead of a full back. Pep would be pleased to see the odd formation. In the middle is Bex Rayner and Fuka Tsunoda. Carla Camacho is in the 9 with Michelle on the left and Tahira Heron on the right. Some new faces for us to watch then. Ex Seagull Megan Walsh is in the Hammers goal. She is good. Lets hope she has a bad night. Vivian Asseyi is on fire this season but fortunately on the bench tonight. Shekira Martinez who was on fire after arriving in January has had a slow start to this season. Long may that continue. Riko Ueki can also be good but is also on the bench. The teams are warmed up. There is surprised applause as the players take the knee. Off we go. Come on you Seagulls.

The Seagulls are on the front foot and get the first shot. It’s tame from Michelle from outside the box and an easy stop for Megan. They are getting closer as Tahira Heron’s cross is tipped over the bar. After 5 minutes in the opposite half, Baggers gets to touch the ball after a dodgy back pass from Caitlin. The ball is back up the pitch and the visitors are dominating again. Jorelyn will be pleased to see Carla has borrowed her Judo manual with a well performed tackle/throw of a hammers defender. Seagulls fans are making a lot of noise in our little bit of the stand. Brighton have West Ham penned into the final third and are being patient. Another Heron cross but it’s way too long. Rosa gets space at the edge of the box but her shot hits the post. It rebounds to Carla. Her shot is almost straight at Megan who can’t control it and it’s in the net on 16 ⚽. 1-0. Need to make this dominance count for something. A long Hammer pass is controlled by Maelys who gets steam rollered 🚜 by Wandeler who gets booked. The hammers first chance comes on 18, it’s rushed and the shot is wide. The first Seagull in the book is Bex Rayner who challenges the midfield runner but goes down first. The runner is clear of Bex when she decides to fall over to get a foul. The Hammer’s first corner is on 21. They recycle if but it comes to nothing. Michelle breaks and is brought down at pace but no yellow for the challenge. Brighton are soon back in control. Come on Brighton echos round the ground. Hold the front page. It’s nearly half an hour into the game and the home fans have finally made their presence known with a horn and some half hearted chanting. It’s scrappy in the final third as the Seagulls are pressing high. Michelle cuts in and curls one from outside the box and it goes just wide. The Hammers make a mess of the goal kick but Rosa’s shot is straight at Megan who keeps hold of it this time. Martinez breaks and is clear but just goes a bit too wide and runs out of pitch. The corner is punched by Baggers but the spinning ball is cut back and prodded into the net on 27. 1-1. Boo. To us ,it looked like the ball was out before it was cut back in but the lino would have had a difficult job because the line is a bit wonky. Need to get back on it and into the lead again. A fantastic Brighton move down the other end, Jorelyn picks out Tahira wide in space. Carla runs onto the through ball. The cross is great but Michelle can’t get a meaningful contact. West Ham are much more positive now and a good break sees them shoot just over. It’s starting to get a bit end to end. And getting a bit scrappy as Bex is pulled back in the centre circle leading to another Hammers yellow. Hammer are on the front foot and get another corner. Their fans have woken up briefly. The corner is cleared fortunately. In a fantastic move, Michelle pinches the ball at the half way line, runs to the by-line and cuts back for Carla who hits it just wide. A much more open game now. Bex Rayner is down in the middle and getting treatment. She hobbles off and is replaced by Nadine. “There’s only one Bex Rayner”. Brighton are being pressed back now. The Seagulls fans trying to drive them forward. Love a marauding centre back and Maely charges up the pitch and tests Megan from range. It’s on target and needs to be saved. A third Hammers yellow on 44. A free kick then a corner leads to a West Ham break and Tahira does very well to put it behind, The corner looks wasted but as they head back towards the Seagulls goal, it looks like Baggers fouls the striker who gets to the ball first. The ref is saved from the decision by it being off-side. Baggers will be a little relieved too. As are we. Into the last of 4 added minutes and Brighton are pressing again. It’s even at the break and anybody’s game in the 2nd half.

The Seagulls are kicking off and kicking towards us. They are on the charge in the first minute as Tahira plays in Michelle but she is out wide and can’t quite find the target. It’s scrappy again but the Seagulls fans are making some noise. “Give me a B”. Brighton break through via Tahira. Jorelyn joins in. Fuka puts a great looping cross into Michelle but the defender just gets her head to it first. The corner goes straight out. Rachel is playing a good game in the middle, trying to move the ball from back to front. She gets a great chance as she runs with the ball, a quick 1-2 with Michelle and her shot into the top corner is within reach of Megan. Brighton fans are getting behind the team with a lot of noise. We’re skill pressing. West Ham miss an open goal on the break after a mistake from Jorelyn. Well clear and with only Baggers to beat but it's straight at her. Time for some changes on 63 and Fran replaces Carla and Charlize for Maelys. Both like for like. And Rachel is replaced by Marisa so a change around there. We’ll see who goes where. Some West Ham subs come on including Asseyi and Ueki. That’s not good. Fran starting to cause issues down the right. “Let’s go Brighton” . A couple of corners won. And another. All in front of Seagulls fans. It very close as it’s headed back in form the far post but Megan manages to collect the ball in the chaos. It’s all Brighton. Nadine gets the ball on the back of the head, she goes off briefly but is able to come back on. It's been 75 minutes and we finally hear “Come on you Irons”. The wake must be over. It is now. A Hammers throw in, a cut back that Caitlin clears straight into Ueki. It bounces to Martinez who smashes it across Baggers into the net on 78. 2-1. Gutted. Plenty of time to play yet. Tahira, has looked good and is replaced on 78. Hope she can make a difference🙏. Brighton are pressing for the equaliser but it’s looking a bit desperate. A move started by Michelle, finds Fran who plays in Rosa. She crosses the ball in, it almost goes in the top corner but goes just over. Not what she planned but so nearly in. Asseyi is rolling around on the floor after zero contact with Michelle. Megan is also down in the Hammers goal. “Stand up, for the goalkeeper” rings out from the away end after she has recovered with treatment 😶. Asseyi has also recovered and shoots just wide. Chances coming at both ends now. It’s got very desperate. There some are poor decisions being made and Fran is giving some robust feedback to the culprits. Come on Brighton. Need a bit of luck now. Seagulls getting some good crosses in but the defence is holding up well. Into 6 minutes of added time. Seagulls are camped out in the Hammers third. Kiko is getting plenty of the ball on the right. She gets into the box and goes down. It looks like a penalty from the stand but nothing from this ref who is miles away. Into the last minute and Rosa puts it into the top corner only for Megan to somehow get to it to keep it out. Baggers comes up for the resulting corner but it’s headed wide by Caitlin at the far post.. With no irony whatsoever, the last kick of the game is a free kick after Asseyi threw herself to the floor. All over in Dagenham with a disappointing loss. At least it didn’t go to pens and we will get home before midnight. Back to the District line to head home.

The Seagulls again regretting not being clinical early on. They were in control for the first 45 with the opponents relying on hitting on the break. It worked for them too, with a goal from the resulting corner. The Seagulls were so near, so many times, but needed a bigger lead. They played high risk football at the wrong times and needed to make their chances count. The ref didn’t help getting worse as the game went on. For all the moaning, it was a good watch and the Seagulls fans made a good noise cheering the girls on. Barely a peep from the hammers fans. Maybe still in the wake. It was a big improvement over our league visit here in February and at least we got to watch the defeat sitting down in comfort. We are still 2nd in the group and expect it to finish like that now. Coming up on Sunday, we have an away trip to the Emirates, and the luxury of going on the fans coach. Hopefully, the team will have saved some energy to put into that. After Fran has given them all an earbashing. She was very grumpy at the end, especially with the younger players, presumably not meeting the required standards. How ironic is it that we watch Tranmere three times, all away from home, and yet the first defeat we watch all season is Brighton against a team they beat 4-1 at home on the opening day. That’s football for you.

POTM: Goes to Fuka Tsunoda 🏅 who has 2 great feet and a lot of defermination. Watching her tackling and running with the ball is a pleasure. Great to watch. A really good addition to the team. Congrats.

The officials seemed Ok at the start but got worse. The ref missed a clear penalty for a foul on Kiko in the very lastI minute. Perhaps she was watching via VPN from another time zone and the match had already finished where she was. It was a tight call for the lino for the equaliser as the ball looked out before the cutback but had all of the ball crossed all of the line. It must be hard to tell when the line is so wonky FA Law 17 states: “A corner kick is awarded when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, on the ground or in the air, having last touched a player of the defending team, and a goal is not scored” It needs to be updated so the officials know what to do when there is a goal squiggle where the goal line should be.

The Scran’O’meter reported that the food looked nice although there were no veggie options. We took a picnic so it didn’t matter. There were no bag searches, bottle or bottle top checks and all bottles were sold with the tops on. Just as it should be. Progress.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾