A Martha Thomas strike in the first half, alongside Kenza Dali’s penalty and Alisha Lehmann’s shot ultimately secured the game in West Ham’s favour against a Seagulls team that struck late on through Megan Connolly.
All in all, it was a very disappointing day at the office for Hope Powell’s side, with the Albion manager admitting that both teams had points to prove following defeats in the previous round of FAWSL matches. Sadly, it was the Hammers that bounced back on this occasion.
Powell made three changes to the side that lost 4-0 away at Arsenal a fortnight ago, with Danique Kerkdijk, Lea Le Garrec and Ini Umotong all coming into the starting line-up to replace Fern Whelan, Connolly and Kayleigh Green respectively.
Chances were few and far between for either side in the first quarter of an hour, with a blocked Emily Simpkins effort the only goalmouth activity.
But the game’s intensity gradually increased, and Albion came within inches of breaking the deadlock after Ellie Brazil fed in Aileen Whelan, who cut inside the West Ham defence and saw her effort cannon off the bar. Brazil had a chance to put Albion in front from the rebound, but her shot landed on the roof of the net.
Albion were dealt a hammer blow in the 24th minute when Lehmann picked out Thomas inside the box, and the latter fired her strike past Megan Walsh to give the visitors the lead.
Lehmann was the provider of West Ham’s next chance after she ran down the right-hand side and played an enticing ball into the box which was just missed by Leanne Kiernan at the far post.
Albion looked to restore parity to the scoreline shortly after the restart, as Umotong raced towards goal before being tackled just as she was about to shoot.
Le Garrec was next to try her luck in a bid to wipe out West Ham’s lead at the end of a swift Seagulls counter-attack. Walsh made herself big to deny Lehmann, and Gibbons picked up the ball and ran almost the full length of the pitch to pick out the French midfielder, who fired wide.
But it was West Ham that struck next after Thomas, the scorer of the opener, went down inside the area and Dali made no mistake with the resulting penalty to make it 2-0 with 70 minutes played.
The game was effectively killed off as a contest three minutes later through Lehmann, who beat Walsh with a well-executed strike from a tight angle.
The Hammers looked to make their lead even more emphatic, as Lehmann went in search of her second and West Ham’s fourth, but she shot over the bar on this occasion.
The Seagulls did have the last word though through Connolly, who fired in from close range in stoppage time from Whelan’s cut-back across the box.
That was how the contest finished, and Albion will now turn their attention to a Continental League Cup match at home to Bristol City next Sunday.
ALBION: Walsh; Lundorf, Williams, Kerkdijk, Gibbons; Simpkins (Le Tissier 46), Bowman, Le Garrec; Brazil (Connolly 74), Umotong (Green 59), A. Whelan.
SUBS NOT USED: Harris (GK), Barton, Hack, Natkiel.
ATTENDANCE: 849