Whelan’s goal was enough to secure Albion a third win of the season, and despite believing the victory should have been more comfortable, Powell commented on a job well done.
She said, “I was really pleased, as the players executed the things we’d been doing all week. I thought we were very resilient again, even though we should’ve scored more goals.
“I’m not saying they didn’t have chances, but we should’ve comfortably won the game. Credit goes to them though, because they put us on the back foot in the second half, but we were resilient and the most important thing is that we got three points.
“It’s my job to make sure we’re organised and when we execute the game plan as well as we did today, it shows the work we’ve done all week.
“We don’t always manage to do it, but I thought we did that very well today.”
This result moves Albion six points clear of bottom club Bristol City having played two games more than the Robins, and Powell says the onus is City, Birmingham and Liverpool to make up that lost ground.
“They’ve got to chase us, and it’s always harder to do that. They’ve got some work to do now, and hopefully we do enough to keep us in this division.
“The good thing is that we got the rewards for our efforts, especially after the disappointment at West Ham, which we firmly believed we should’ve won that game.
“We worked a lot on togetherness, everyone was really up for it and it ends a good week for us.”
The Seagulls are next in action against survival rivals Birmingham next Sunday, and the manager says optimism will be high among the squad following back-to-back wins over Aston Villa and Everton.
“It’s another big game, but we have some confidence and momentum after winning two games on the bounce.
“We’ve got to take heart from today. We want to play on the front foot and get bodies higher up the pitch. If you do that, then they have to get bodies back to defend, and that worked very well today.”