Brighton & Hove Albion manager Hope Powell says that her side cannot take this afternoon’s opponents Birmingham City lightly despite their lowly league position.
The Blues are on the verge of being relegated to the FA Women’s Championship off the back of a torrid season which has seen them collect just five points from 18 games.
Brighton & Hove Albion go into this afternoon’s clash at The People’s Pension Stadium as the heavy favourites to emerge with the three points but manager Powell says that her side mustn’t underestimate a Birmingham City team who have taken just one point from their away matches this season.
“We fell foul when we played Leicester City and everyone was expecting us to win,” Powell said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “The games are not easy and we can’t take this game lightly, I’ve stressed that point.
“The players have to be absolutely in a mindset and ready for that challenge in order to perform, do well and hopefully, get something out of the game.”
Brighton & Hove Albion are just a win away from beating last season’s points tally in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and Powell would certainly see a final total of 28 points or more as progress.
She said “It would be great to end with more points on the board than we had last season, that’s what we are striving for to continue to look up. If we perform the way that we have in recent games, we give ourselves every possible chance of beating last season.
“We know that the Birmingham game is really going to be tough, they can mathematically still stay up so it will be no easy game. I have always said that for us, there is no easy game in this league.
“We all want to do well, recognising that they are going to throw everything at it. We are just going to have to manage the game and hopefully, get something out of it, get points on the board and try and better what we did last season.”
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Birmingham City kicks-off at 2pm.