'Resilient' Brighton leapfrog West Ham United with away victory

Whelan’s early opener was added to by Kaagman ten minutes from time as Albion climbed to sixth with four games of the season remaining.

The two sides traded chances throughout the match but Brighton were more clinical in front of goal and could have won by more had Megan Connolly’s long-range strike found the net rather than the crossbar.

The game was less than two minutes old when Ellie Brazil set off on a marauding run down the right flank and found Kaagman.

She laid it off to Whelan, who calmly slotted the ball past Mackenzie Arnold to get the visitors off to a flyer.

West Ham nearly levelled in the 19th minute as Grace Fisk broke beyond Albion’s back line but a superb recovery tackle from Emma Kullberg quelled the attack.

The hosts came close again in the 34th minute through Tameka Yallop, who forced a smart save from Katie Startup after steering Katerina Svitoka’s cross towards goal.

Just before the hour mark, following a spell of sustained Brighton pressure, Connolly rattled West Ham’s crossbar with a right-footed shot from distance.

Soon afterwards, Startup was called into action twice in as many minutes to deny West Ham top scorer Dagny Brynjarsdottir, who nearly added to her four league goals with a far post header and close-range effort.

As West Ham pushed for an equaliser, they were hit by a sucker punch as Arnold failed to clear her lines and presented Kaagman with an open goal to put the game beyond doubt late on.

Brighton manager Hope Powell said: "We had attitude, effort and application. We were quite resilient at the end in the latter stages of the game.

"I’ve said it before, we rarely get an early goal so for us, it was a good thing as it settled us and meant they were chasing.

"They’re the ones who have to come out and try and find something and that just gave us confidence very early on.

"In the second half, we were a bit too deep. But we were resilient, organised and dedicated and got rewarded for being alert and putting the ball in the back of the net.

"I felt that we should’ve scored more goals, so I’m a bit disappointed that sometimes we make it a little bit hard for ourselves.

"Sometimes we gave the ball away a bit too cheaply but when you haven’t got the ball you’ve got to do the dirty bit which is work hard. I think we did that well today.

"If we don’t have the ball but we win, I’m happy, and I’m delighted with the three points."

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