Action from Chelsea v Brighton Picture by Paul Lagan
By Paul Lagan at Kingsmeadow Stadium
Sjoeke Nusken hit a brace as Chelsea continued their 100 per cent record beating a rugged Brighton 4-2 at Kingsmeadow.
This was a lacklustre performance from the champions, with individual errors contributing to the six-goal scoring.
Aggie Beever-Jones and Joanna Rytting Kaneryd notched the other two.
Chelsea retain their five-point lead over Manchester City with 27 points from nine games.
Chelsea started brightly, Guro Reiten, Nathalie Bjorn and Millie Bright all went close .
But the visitors almost scored when a defensive mix-up allowed Nikita Parris and Rachel McLauchlan to stab their efforts towards goal, but somehow, the Blues cleared their lines.
Parris missed a great chance on 20 minutes, when she was given the ball by Ashley Lawrence in error, but the striker's left-footer went high and wide of the goal.
Jorelyn Carabali produced a wonderful header from a corner on 30 minutes, which Hannah Hampton somehow got her body into a blocking position. It was the best chance of the game.
But it was the Blues who took the lead on 35 minutes, Sjoeke Nusken's thunderbolt shot was hacked off the line and Kaptein followed up and tucked home from close range. But Nusken's effort had just crossed the line and she was given he goal.
Japan striker Kiko Seike got in front of Lawrence and her diving header, while goal-bound, was steered away by the impressive Hampton.
Aggie Beever-Jones scored probably the easiest goal of her career to date when she followed up a ball that went back to goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley. The goalkeeper opted to be clever and try to play the b all out.
Beever-Jones snapped on her, took the ball and the ball tapped off the post and she toe-poled home, on 40 minutes.
But three minutes later ex-Blue Jelena Cankovic took advantage of loose defensive play by Chelsea and she coolly tucked home.
Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor will not have been happy with that display and she made two half-time substitutions – on came Niamh Charles and Catarina Macario – off went Lawrence and Kaptein.
The Blues restored their two-goal lead on 50 minutes when Jojo tucked home after Baggaley had blocked a Beaver-Jones effort.
Hampton who has had a good game bad game, produced a bad game pass which went straight to Seike, who smashed the ball home to make it 3-2 to Chelsea with 20 minutes left on the clock.
Bompastor then replaced JoJo with striker Mayra Ramirez with Beever-Jones moving to the wing.
The Columbia striker was unlucky, on 76 minutes when she headed a Reiten corner onto Baggaley's right post.
Just as the four minutes were added to the end of the game, a Macario corner was headed in at the near post by Nusken to make the game almost secure at 4-0.
Teams: Chelsea: Hampton, Bright, Nusken, Cuthbert, Reiten, Lawrence, Bjorn, Kaptein, Rytting Kaneryd (JoJo) Bronze, Beever-Jones
|Sub: Musovic, Ramirez, Macario, Perisset, Charles, Hamano, Mpome, Jean-Francois, Bernabe
Brighton: Baggaley, Pattinson, Bergsvand, Losada, Bremer, Parris, Cankovic, Seike, Carabali, Olislagers, McLauchlan
Subs: Loeck, Rayner, Vilamais, Milner, Heron, Agyemang, Pegram, Balmer, Johnson.