Brighton manager Mikey Harris spoke to the media ahead of his side’s upcoming game with Tottenham Hotspur in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
Harris opened his press conference with team news, confirming that Spanish international Vicky Losada will return to the match day squad following her injury.
‘Vicky Losada will return to the squad, which is a big, big boost for us. We also have a full squad available, with the exception of Charlize Rule,’ he added.
Harris then spoke about defeat to Everton last time out, which took place in front of five-thousand fans at the club’s American Express Community Stadium (AMEX), rather than the usual Women’s home ground in Crawley.
Despite the result not going the way of the Seagulls, Harris is determined for his players to use the event itself as a springboard for the rest of the season.
Embed from Getty Images‘Clearly, we’re disappointed with the result and having analysed it deeply as a group of staff, we feel like on another day, we could’ve won the game. A lot of the areas we’ve been working on, we’ve shown progress in.’
‘From my perspective, on the pitch I’m disappointed with the result but the atmosphere the 5000 fans created was amazing. You could feel that connection with the team so we are thankful for the fans who came out to support.’
At this stage of the WSL season, with three games to go, Brighton are part of that ‘lower group’, not really troubling the teams in the top half, but finding themselves towards the upper echelons of the bottom six.
As we approach the final stretch of the campaign, Harris said, ‘I think it’s just about building on what we have been doing. The important things for me are the way we play, our identity, the desire and intensity and the players themselves have spoken about being and staying hungry.’
‘It’s easy when you get to this stage of the season where one could argue that you’ve nothing to play for, I certainly don’t subscribe to that because there is always something to play for, there are three points on the line in every match.’
‘We want to finish the season strongly, in a way and identity that represents us and the football club.’
Their upcoming opponents, Tottenham Hotspur, have rather set something of a benchmark for teams ‘on a journey’ this term. Robert Vilahamn has guided his side to a historic first-ever Adobe Women’s FA Cup final in his first season on these shores.
‘I’ve been really impressed with them,’ said Harris on Friday, going on to add that ‘I think they’re further along the journey than we are.’
‘You can always take things from other clubs, other coaches to help you learn and develop but the important thing is you stick true to your values.’
‘We have enough humility to take whatever you can from whoever you can. We’re always learning, whether that be from a WSL game, a Premier League game, a PL2 game, you’re always looking for different ideas, you can always pick up things from other groups. Tottenham are a team that I admire with a coach that I admire, so I look forward to competing against them on Sunday.’
The two sides face off in the Women’s Super League on Sunday at Brisbane Road.
