Olli Harder was left to reflect on what was a frustrating afternoon for West Ham United Women, as they were beaten 2-0 by Brighton & Hove Albion.
Despite the Hammers arguably having the better of the play overall, it would be individual errors that would cost the east Londoners dearly and hand the away side all three points.
Aileen Whelan opened the scoring with only two minutes gone in the match, and despite the best efforts of Harder’s team to get back into the match, they lacked a clinical edge. Inessa Kaagman was the recipient from a defensive mix up with ten minutes remaining to put the game to bed.
And Harder was clearly frustrated at the full-time whistle with the way in which his side had given up those goals.
“We’re really disappointed to not come away with anything today,” he told whufc.com.
"We gave away two sloppy goals, and it’s those individual errors that have let us down today.
“To be put on the backfoot almost immediately meant that took us a little while to get going, and in the end it wasn’t enough.”
This was the first home match of the season that the Hammers had failed to score in, but they will be rueing missed opportunities, especially in the second half when a number of good deliveries caused issues for the Brighton backline.
But they would stand firm, and eventually punish the Irons at the other end to bring an end any chance of a comeback.
“We found some good spaces and created some good chances, meaningful opportunities that we didn’t take.
“We had a hold of the game for long periods but we couldn’t capitalise on that.
“The second goal is a catalogue of errors and it’s really disappointing that we couldn’t get back into the game."
With a clash against Manchester City – live on Sky Sports next weekend on the horizon, Harder knows that there is work to do on the training pitch ahead of another tough game in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
"If we make those types of errors against Man City, we're dead in the water, so we have to make sure we tidy that up.
"I thought we've been good value up until this month throughout March, it’s just a really, really tough way to finish the month.
"It's the first time we haven’t scored at home and our only other defeat here apart from the games against Chelsea, so it’s tough to take, but credit to Brighton.
"But I didn’t think we made them play that well to get the win today, but I thought there was more in the game for us than a 2-0 loss," Harder concluded.
Tickets are on sale for West Ham United Women’s next game, which is against Manchester City on Saturday 2 April at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
