Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa treated a crowd of 2,152 to a fantastic early season encounter between two sides with ambitions of troubling the traditional top sides in the WSL. Prior to today, Aston Villa had never lost away to Brighton in the Barclays Women's Super League and had beaten the Seagulls three times last season across all competitions. But that happy hunting on the south coast came to an end this afternoon, as Brighton ran out the fixture as 4-2 victors.

Going into the match both sides had the misfortune of facing one of the top-two from last season in their opening matches away from home, and both came away with 1-0 defeats despite spirited performances.

Katie Robinson returned to her former club on the back of a player of the match performance against Crystal Palace in the Women's League Cup midweek, but despite speculation, she did not make the starting XI.

Aston Villa named an unchanged line up from last week's draw with Tottenham. But Robert De Pauw did confirm in the pre-match press conference that Rachel Corsie has had knee surgery and will be out for eight weeks.

For Brighton, there was just one change from their defeat to Manchester City with Kika Seike, the top scorer in the WSL, dropped to the bench. Replacing the Japanese international was one of Brighton's marquee signings of the Summer, Nikita Parris.

The Lineups BHA: Baggaley, Thorisdottir, Pattinson, Bergsvand, Losada (c), Bremer, Parris, Kirby, Carabali, Olislagers, Vilamala

AVL: D'Angelo, Tomas, Patten, Bo Kearns, Nobbs, Daly (c), Dali, Parker, Maritz, Hanson, Grant

The Action The early season challenge began with both sides trading blows. An early opportunity for Brighton arose when Jorelyn Carabali's pass towards the Villa box was misjudged by Anna Patten, as Parris pounced onto the ball behind her. But the Villa defence did well to close down the options for the former England international.

In response, Anna Patten looked for a cross field ball to Paula Tomas on multiple occasions to varied affect, but Tomas' overlapping runs were clearly a key part of Robert De Pauw's attacking plans.

Both sides aiming to press and force mistakes was a theme throughout the match, and it was that pressure from the Villans that eventually told the tale. A blocked pass out to the midfield found the onrushing Tomas, who played a beautifully weighted pass into the box which was followed in by Kirsty Hanson.

Hanson cut the ball back and Rachel Daly's deflected finish rolled agonisingly out of reach for Sophie Baggaley, to make it two goals in three WSL appearances this season for Daly.

But Villa's lead was short lived as within only a minute of conceding, Brighton were back level. The Seagulls streamed forward from the restart. Maria Thorisdottir operating on the right hand side of the Villa box, playing a ball to the far post which was wonderfully flicked back into the box by Poppy Pattinson. Nikita Parris was in the perfect spot to apply the finish. The goal bore striking similarity to Tottenham's leveller against the same opponent last weekend, a fact sure to frustrate de Pauw.

Aston Villa looked eager to bite-back with efforts on goal from Hanson and Jordan Nobbs, the latter making her 193rd appearance in the WSL, more than any other player in the league's history.

The battle continued as Brighton looked to regain some control with a spell of possession between two of their best passers on the pitch in Guro Bergsvand and Vicky Losada. Midway through the first half a misplaced pass from Hanson set Parris running at the Aston Villa backline, before finding Pauline Bremer on the wing who cut the ball back to Dutch international Marisa Olislagers who miscued her effort.

Parris continued to cause issues for Villa and was involved again on 38 minutes, sprinting at the Aston Villa back line. Parris, seeing the run of Bremer across the backline and in behind Aston Villa, played a pass with inch perfect timing, Bremer strode onto the pass before placing the ball into the bottom right corner. The turn around was so far complete at 2-1.

As the half time whistle crept closer, Villa continued to raise the urgency. From the left side of the Brighton box, Hanson again involved, lifted a ball to the far post which was by Daly who nodded the play down for Dali, but the on-rushing French international was unable to keep her shot down and blasted the ball over the crossbar.

On the 53rd minute Villa pushed for an equaliser, as Tomas' ball into the Brighton box was intercepted by Guro Bergsvand whose heavy touch gave Daly the chance to nip in before the late arriving Bergsvand caught her in the box. Daly made no mistake from the penalty spot, sending Baggaley the wrong way to level the scores at 2-2. Brighton looked to respond with a beautifully worked move down the right hand side which concluded with a cunningly disguised pass from Thorisdottir for Kirby in-behind, but D'Angelo did well to gather the drilled cross.

On 64 minutes, former Brighton fan-favourite Katie Robinson was introduced to the fray to a warm reception from the home fans and she threatened to fire her new side ahead. Seiko and Kirby combined extremely well on a number of occasions this afternoon, continuing their brilliant understanding this season and with the former showing wonderful vision and understanding of space with deft touches on more than one occasion. Tomas, keenly aware of this, looked to halt Seike's advances with this ball into the box. In a challenge which seemed innocuous ,Tomas received a red card with the suggestion being an elbow thrown at Seike. A penalty was given and Fran Kirby stepped up and did the necessary to restore her team's lead.

Aston Villa tried their very best with ten players to draw level, as a magnificent effort from substitute Lucy Staniforth needed to be tipped over by the Brighton number one at the death.

Brighton threatened to put the game beyond doubt, as Seike sky-rocketed a shot over from nine yards out after a melee in the Aston Villa box. Villa, needing to account for having ten players on the pitch, withdrew star striker Rachel Daly for defender Sarah Mayling leaving the attack largely blunted. But hope would arrive for Villa in added time, when Poppy Pattinson received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away and delaying the restart.

Villa, emboldened by their new found parity of participants on the pitch looked to come forward and commit numbers in attack. In committing numbers forward, the Villans left spaces behind as Arsenal-loanee Michelle Agyemang took full advantage of the play, sprinting onto a through ball before putting her strike past D'Angelo with ease.

In the end, it would be Brighton who would hold on for a deserved 4-2 victory. Aston Villa will feel hard done by and that one point from these three games is not a fair reflection of their season so far.

Next up in the Barclays WSL, Aston Villa will return to home comforts next week and face Leicester City at Villa Park, while Brighton travel to newly-promoted Crystal Palace.

The Halfway Line Player of the Match: Nikita Parris Parris looked to be on a mission this afternoon, as her goal and assist were both the signs of a player taking charge. It would have been easy to lose count of the amount of times that Parris was able to run at the Villa backline unchallenged and cause havoc. Parris was playing like a striker with a point to prove, and she certainly proved it.

Share this:Like this:Like Loading...