Brighton & Hove Albion forward Ellie Brazil believes the team ‘made a statement’ in this afternoon’s convincing 4-0 win over West Ham United in the FA Women’s Super League.
Brazil added gloss to the result by netting Albion’s fourth in second half stoppage time, and expressed her happiness at getting on the scoresheet.
She said, “It’s always good to get a goal. All season I’ve only scored with my head and I’ve been waiting for that moment to score with my feet. I got a little bit of stick from Hope after the match and had a little bit of a giggle as she said, ‘well done’.
“We’ve been working on our shooting over the past couple of months so that when we do get in front of goal, we are clinical and ensure when we do get the opportunities, we will take them.
“We came here knowing we had to give it our all and show people what we are made of and to prove that the work we have put in over the last nine months has been worth it.
“I feel like we made a statement for ourselves today, which is something we haven’t been able to do over the season. Today we gave it our all and we can show teams going into next season that we are going to fight.”
The England under-21 international also took time to thank fans for their support over the course of the season and how the result in the previous match against Arsenal spurred them on to put in a good performance this afternoon.
“For me the support beats a big win like this. You can’t do it without the fans. Our fans are great and you get the little kids that come very week – some both home and away as we’ve seen today – and without them it wouldn’t be as enjoyable. We want to inspire the next generation.
“Arsenal deserved to win the league and they were the best team this season. But to play in front of so many people was amazing and I enjoyed the atmosphere at the Amex. I’m so grateful to everyone that turned up.
“Even though we couldn’t perform on the day, we proved ourselves and that brought us to where we are today. We came back stronger following that and we put in a great performance against West Ham to achieve our goal for the year.”