Brighton & Hove Albion women’s first-team manager Hope Powell is expecting her side to show more attacking endeavour against London Bees, when the north Londoners visit Culver Road in a FA WSL 2 game this afternoon.
Powell stressed the importance of returning to winning ways in the league, and says the approach to the game will be very different to the SSE Women’s FA Cup clash with Manchester City last week.
She said, “The game plan is going to be very different. We’re hoping to have more possession of the ball and hopefully we can play much more in the final third.
“The focus will be on trying to claw some points back and hopefully we take lessons from the Man City game and how we performed in that.
“I hope that we can take the defensive aspects of that performance into the London Bees game, try not to concede and be more clinical in front of goal when the chances present themselves.”
The Bees currently sit three places below Albion with eight points from eight league fixtures so far, but Powell is refusing to underestimate the challenge that awaits.
“They’ve [London Bees] been a bit inconsistent. They’ve lost some players and gained some too.
“They have everything to play for, as do we, and it’s going to be a tough game.
“Every game in this league is very competitive, and we don’t expect this to be any different. They want to get points to drag them up the table, and I’m envisaging it to be quite a battle.”
The Seagulls boss also reviewed last week’s game against City and feels that plenty of lessons have been learned ahead of the club’s debut campaign in FA WSL 1 next season.
“A lot of positives came out of it and we proved in the game that we can be disciplined defensively against sides of that quality.
"If we’re looking ahead to FA WSL 1, the opportunities in front of goal are going to be fewer than what they are here. When you get a chance, you’ve got to take it.
“But there were many positives to take and the girls really want to learn and get better. Hopefully that game will help us ahead of Sunday and for the games coming up in the future too.”
Advance tickets are no longer available for the match, but tickets can be purchased on the gate at Culver Road, priced at £10 for adults and £5 for under-16s/over-65s.