WSL match preview: Brighton v Spurs

This weekend we travel to the Broadfield Stadium in Crawley to face Brighton & Hove Albion in the Women’s Super League. 

The game kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 30 October.

Brighton’s WSL journey so far

The Seagulls joined the restructured WSL for the 2018/19 season and finished ninth under former Lionesses manager Hope Powell, Ellie Brazil the club’s top scorer with four goals.

They finished with again the following year as the season was curtailed with four games to spare due to Covid-19.

In 2020/21, Brighton had their best WSL finish, coming sixth with six wins from their final nine games, including the ending of Chelsea’s run of 33 matches unbeaten in league football.

Last season, Brighton finished seventh in the league.

This season

As for this season so far, Powell’s side have lost 4-0 at Arsenal, won 2-1 at home to Reading, lost 3-2 away to Birmingham City in the Continental League Cup, and lost 4-0 against Manchester United before last weekend.

On Sunday, they lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea in front of a record crowd of 3,626 fans at Broadfield Stadium.

Manager’s thoughts

Spurs Women Head Coach Rehanne Skinner said: “Brighton are a tough test. They’ve had a lot of changes to their squad this year as well. There’s been differences within each game that they’ve played, so we’re preparing for some different elements from them. 

“I thought they played very well against Chelsea last week and that’s shown the progress within what they’re trying to achieve.”

Brighton boss Hope Powell said: “We're all good at the moment. There are some tired minds after Sunday but otherwise we are fine for Spurs."

"Arguably against Chelsea was the best we've performed this season. We created more chances than we ever have against them. I was pleased with the quality and effort. It's about results but I was pleased with how the squad came together."

"Spurs look very organised, very strong and very aggressive, and they move the ball well. They've got experience and we know it will be tough. We have to match them and be up for the fight."

Team news

Ellie Brazil will miss out after suffering an ACL injury against Man City last weekend. Kerys Harrop is now available to return to the squad, though.

Match officials

Louise Saunders has been appointed to take charge of this Sunday’s game, Sophie Dennington and Isabel Chaplin her assistants and Gareth Dunn the fourth official.

How to follow

Sunday’s game is being shown exclusively on the FA Player. Highlights will be published on SPURSPLAY after the game.

Head-to-head

In our six WSL meetings with Brighton since December 2019, there have been four Spurs wins and two Brighton wins.

Last time we met was in February 2022, when goals from Kyah Simon (x2), Ashleigh Neville and Shelina Zadorsky secured a 4-0 win at The Hive.

Our previous visit to Broadfield Stadium was in October 2021 when Brighton won 2-1 thanks to goals from Geum Min Lee and Victoria Williams, Kit Graham scoring a late consolation for Spurs.