Connolly: Carter making a big difference

Danielle Carter has added a real sharpness to the Albion attack, according to team-mate Megan Connolly.

Carter arrived on the south coast in the summer having had a successful career at Arsenal and played for England.

“She brings a huge amount of experience and quality,” Connolly said. “She’s shown that throughout her career and it’s the hallmark of a really good player.

“It’s important that we give her the service though. It’s all well and good having a player with that quality, but if we don’t provide her with the ball then we’re doing her and the team a disservice. We’re learning how to get the best out of her.

“What we have seen is that if you do give her the right service she will thrive. As soon as she got the ball in the box against Chelsea on Saturday, you knew she was going to tuck that chance away. She’s brought that level of excitement up front, she’s good for us.”

Providing Carter with better service was among the improvements Albion showed in the second half against the champions, despite their 3-1 defeat.

“We played a lot better in the second half in terms of stringing passes together and getting the ball into Danielle. It wasn’t a case of us hoping for a free-kick where we could load the box,” added Connolly.

“We played good football and tried to break them down. It was a good goal to score against Chelsea as they don’t concede many like that, which naturally gave us confidence.

“In the second half we really put it to them and you could see that they struggled to handle it. We played very well, there were a lot of positives to take ahead of this Sunday’s game against Spurs.”