Legendary filmmaker Jean Cocteau once extolled "In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator." While Mr Cocteau may have been talking about the metropolitan capital of our European neighbours, the quotation could equally be applied to Brighton's skilful striker Nikita Parris. The former England international stepped up from spectator to become actor putting in a sensational performance today, having started the first two WSL games on the bench she came into the starting line up and took her chance. The Halfway Line got the opportunity to speak to Parris following the match at Broadfield Stadium today.

Parris gave a fair assessment of the match, she explained "to be honest it was scrappy at times, it was two possession based teams, two teams who wanted to go out and win the game." Parris continued "Momentum ebbed and flowed between the teams, ultimately we stayed resilient in the moments we had to and punished them when we had to too." Parris sung the praises of the new head coach Dario Vidosic, stating "the play style of the coach is fantastic to be honest, [he is] a really top coach, every detail is looked after."

Parris did provide a note of caution that the side remains a work in progress, she stated "he is a top coach with a set of players that really believe in what he wants to do, that's how you progress. We are still in our infancy as a team and how we grow and develop his play style."

A smile found its way across Parris' face when asked about her goal today, she explained "[I'm] very happy [to be on the scoresheet] its important to score goals especially when the chances come" but Parris was also keen to share the praise around the whole squad "[there was] four different scorers today so we've got an array of talent across the squad." When asked about creating goals too as she did today, she noted "I want to impact the game scoring goals and creating goals."

Parris noted how important it was to stay focused throughout remarking on the challenge Villa posed "We knew how we was going to play and how we was going to create goals and we just had to stay confident, Villa did go 1-0 up and it was important that our mind set stayed on track and we believe in ourselves and we did." The former Manchester United forward continued "Villa never really caused us many problems, we caused our own problems and Villa capitalised on them, we know that as a team, how to progress going forward."

Parris was also asked about competition within the squad and the positive effects of it noting "you need competition, ultimately, if you want to be a team that's progressing to get towards the top of the table you have to have that competition." Parris continued "we have an array of talent, such good players like Fran [Kirby], Bruna [Vilamala], Kiko [Seike]." Parris was in particular asked about the fourth goalscorer today Michelle Agyeman "It's important you have that blend [younger and older] in the squad and ultimately I want every player to do well, I will always give confidence to younger players, let them express themselves and be there when they need to talk." Parris spoke about Agyemang in particular "she is a great talent and is sure to be a future talent going forward."

Parris' simple advice for her team mates coming into the side? "When you get your moment, take it." She certainly did exactly that today.

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