Whelan: We Never Give Up

Brighton & Hove Albion women’s forward Aileen Whelan felt that although errors were made against Reading in the 4-1 defeat on Sunday afternoon, the correct attitude to battle back was on show at the Broadfield Stadium.

Whelan found the back of the net for the Seagulls to make it 2-1, but further goals from the Royals prevented Albion from forcing a comeback, and the 27-year-old assessed the team’s work ethic throughout.

She said, “I thought we stuck to the game plan well and kept our shape, which was frustrating for Reading and they couldn't break us down as easily as they would have hoped in the first half.

“Going forward we created chances, but we just need to make sure we put more of them away.

“Errors are going to occur, but it’s about bouncing back and I think we did that. We were resilient and kept going to try and get a goal back.

“If we’re down, we’re never going to give up, and that’s a positive about this team. We continue to push until the final minute and we showed that against Reading.”

Hope Powell’s team travel to Arsenal next weekend and Whelan believes the team are learning from every game in the FA Women’s Super League, but need to start taking points from their performances.

“Every game is different, so there’s always something different that we need to work on. We have a week to work on those things and we’ll pinpoint our strengths and where we need to improve.

“Week in week out we’re getting the coaching and we’re trying to put that into practice on the pitch. It’s just unfortunate that the results aren’t going our way at the moment.

“It’s always nice to get on the scoresheet, but at the end of the day we wanted to win the game and didn’t.”