As Brighton’s old song goes, “Hark to the merry bugles”, because there is something in the air in Sussex by the sea. A purpose-built women’s team stadium is in the offing, a second consecutive top-half Women’s Super League finish is on the cards and the women’s side are heading to Wembley for the first time. The fans have never had it this good.
It took something special for Brighton to overturn a two-goal deficit in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final victory at Liverpool and they left it late – very late – as Nadine Noordam settled a classic, five-goal thriller with her 95th-minute winner, but reaching this final is something the club have been building towards. In 2022, Brighton set out a bold vision to become a “top-four WSL club” and last summer the head coach, Dario Vidosic, was unafraid to discuss even higher targets, speaking in a determined, bullish and unwaveringly ambitious tone during an interview with the Guardian.
The former Australia international mentioned wanting to “challenge the establishment”, win a trophy and “be the best of the best”, rather than being satisfied with last year’s fifth-placed league finish. They were strong words and many outsiders were probably sceptical but the signs are that he can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
Brighton are unbeaten in seven games, during which they have defeated Arsenal and their upcoming Cup final opponents, Manchester City, and demonstrated neither of those results were a fluke by drawing with Arsenal and Manchester United. They have been one of the most in-form teams since mid-March and their entertaining performances have come at the perfect time as the season reaches its climax.
How are they doing it? First, the forwards are in tremendous form; Fran Kirby, Kiko Seike and Madison Haley, in particular, have excelled in recent weeks, Seike having returned from the Asian Cup with Japan and Kirby back from injury at the end of February. There is strong cohesion in the squad and Kirby told TNT Sports after Sunday’s game: “The culture in the group is incredible. Everyone wants to work for each other, everyone is willing to do the graft and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve had such a successful end to the season, in terms of our performances. The girls are great. It’s just a really nice group of people to be a part of.”
They are also doing it with a playing style pleasing on the eye. Vidosic was almost purring when asked whether Sunday’s second-half display was emblematic of the way he wants his team to play. “It was a joy to watch,” he said. “We created so many chances. We were dominant, we were calm on the ball, we were moving it around and we made it very, very tough for Liverpool.”
Few could dispute that Brighton are worthy finalists. They have won at top-flight sides in three consecutive rounds, beating West Ham, Arsenal and Liverpool, after beginning with a 2-0 home victory over the WSL2 side Nottingham Forest in January’s fourth round. Vidosic provided an insight into his mindset during Sunday’s post-match press conference, because rather than waxing lyrical about reaching the final, he was focused on two things: trying to win the trophy and Saturday’s WSL final day, where his team will record the club’s highest points tally of 29 if they beat Tottenham.
“It’s a huge achievement,” he said of reaching the final. “It’s important that we celebrate it, so I’ll encourage the girls and the staff on the way home – but I’ll probably be somewhere watching the game back, seeing how we can improve, because we still have something really important coming up on the weekend. We still have a chance to have our best-ever season. And since I’ve come in we’ve always spoken about ‘history’. We want to be historic as a team. Last season’s team was able to write their name in [Brighton] history the [club’s] best ever, in terms of points tally. Now this team has started to write its own history and now we’ve got two very important games where we could really put out names there for ever.”
The final on 31 May will be a special day for the entire club. Brighton’s men’s only FA Cup final appearance came in 1983, before a generation of their supporters were born, and neither of the first teams have won a major trophy. When Brighton’s women’s team were founded in the late 1960s, the squad was almost entirely made up of telephonists – switchboard operators who could connect callers to their requested phone line. Were they operating today there would surely be only one connection requested: the ticket office, as fans get excited about their trip to Wembley and a chance to see the next chapter in this promising journey.
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