Brighton and Hove Albion 4 Aston Villa 2
Brighton and Hove Albion beat Aston Villa at the Broadfield Stadium, in Crawley, this afternoon (Saturday 5 October) to claim a second Women’s Super League win of the season.
Rachel Daly opened the scoring for the visitors after 13 minutes but Albion equalised just over a minute later as Nikita Parris marked her full debut with a close-range strike.
Parris was starting her first WSL match since joining Brighton from Manchester United on transfer deadline day.
Shortly before half-time, she picked up a loose ball near the halfway line and raced off towards goal, playing it neatly through a gap for Pauline Bremer to finish.
Villa came out battling after the break and won a penalty 10 minutes into the second half when Guro Bergsvand brought down Anna Patten in the box.
Daly stepped up to the spot and sent Sophie Baggaley the wrong way to level the score at 2-2.
But with just under 15 minutes on the clock, Kiko Seike, on as a sub, was brought down inn the box by Paula Tomas and was shown a straight red card.
Albion defender Poppy Pattinson and former Brighton winger Katie Robinson, also on as a sub, became involved and were booked.
Fran Kirby, who joined from Chelsea in the summer, took the ensuing penalty a few minutes later and wrongfooted Sabrina D’Angelo to Albion back in front.
Villa kept battling, with Baggaley stretching to tip one long-range strike over the bar.
Kirby made way in the 88th minute for 18-year-old Michelle Agyemang who joined on loan from Arsenal last month.
And in added time, things really hotted up. Agyemang and D’Angelo were booked and, in the 94th minute, Pattinson picked up a second yellow card for time-wasting and was sent off.
But in the 97th minute, Agyemang made certain of the points for the Seagulls, scoring her first goal for Brighton as the hosts counter-attacked for a final time.
The teenager ran on to a pass from fellow sub Jelena Cankovic and outpaced the Villa defence before almost raking an angled shot past D’Angelo.
Brighton’s second successive home win took them to second in the table. They have six points along with Chelsea and Manchester United although their rivals both have a game in hand.
They were due to play tomorrow but the match has been postponed, with the Blues due to play at home to Real Madrid in the Women’s Champions League on Tuesday (8 October).
