'Tough' - What Gareth Taylor thought was 'different' about Man City's WSL win against Brighton

After drawing 2-2 with Arsenal at the Emirates on matchday one, the Citizens were able to claim all three points in their first home outing of the new Women’s Super League season.

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw scored the only goal of the game ahead of half-time, but City did have a number of other chances to strengthen their lead.

“You never feel super comfortable, but it gave us something different today, managing that moment and the last part of the game,” said Taylor. “Of course we’d love to be a little bit more out of sight, but you’ve got to give great credit to Brighton and we obviously missed quite a few chances that we’d normally take.

“I knew this would be a tough game, and I’d be really surprised if they’re not in the top half of the table, because if they continue playing that way they will cause teams a lot of problems. They scored a lot in pre-season, we’ve been watching their games. They open up a lot, they’re a dangerous team, so I’m really pleased that we shut them out.”

Prior to Shaw’s goal, Brighton had a number of chances of their own to break the deadlock, with Fran Kirby having a couple of shots saved by Ayaka Yamashita, while a block in the box denied Pauline Bremer.

“In this league you’ve got to make the most of your chances because everyone’s really good, especially City,” said Seagulls boss Dario Vidošić. “When you get those chances you have to put them away because they’ve got very good players that will cause players and create stuff.

“For all the ball they had, defensively we were good. Being solid when we need to be is something we’ve spoken about. We would’ve liked to have controlled the game a little bit more, but the times when we did we played out and created some good opportunities. It’s just a learning curve of knowing when to go fast and when to slow down - doing to Manchester what they were doing to us.”