Kirby: Seike's start brilliant to see

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England international delighted with Kiko Seike's debut.

Bruce Talbot

2024-09-23T06:00+01:00

Fran Kirby wasn’t the only Albion player to mark her debut with a goal but the Lioness was happy that her performance in Saturday's 4-0 win over Everton was overshadowed by Kiko Seike’s brilliant hat-trick.

Kirby scored from the penalty spot and Seike became the first player in WSL history to score a debut hat-trick, while their partnership down the right-hand side was one of the many positives for head coach Dario Vidosic. Like him, Kirby was impressed with Seike’s contribution.

“She's a fantastic player. You could see that when she first came in that she is very direct. She wants to score goals and get in the box and you need those players if you're going score goals in this league. We are really happy to have her and delighted she got off the mark with a hat-trick."

Kirby got a warm ovation from the Broadfield Stadium crowd when she came off in the 88th minute and after struggling with injuries in the last few months of her Chelsea career it was the longest she had played in the WSL since January.

“I was really happy to play the majority of the game,” she added. “It was the first time in a long time other than pre-season to get that many minutes in the WSL so I'm happy with that and with the way that the game went.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Kirby knows Albion can improve.

“We’re not naïve,” she said. “We know that these things take time and with a new manager and a lot of new faces we need time for it to gel.

“Even though we won the game 4-0 you could see where we still need to improve but that’s the most exciting thing about this group - we know we can go to another level.”

Having only won one league game at Broadfield Stadium last season, significantly improving the home for this campaign is another of the squad’s aims.

“The home form has been really poor, but we want to turn this place into our fortress and other teams are worried coming here. It won’t happen overnight, but I thought the atmosphere on Saturday was brilliant and the fans made a lot of noise. It makes such a difference.”