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Godfrey stars as London City win at Brighton

Freya Godfrey celebrates with her thumbs upGetty Images

At a glance

Kiko Seike finishes off brilliant team goal to give Brighton lead

London City Lionesses level through comical Moeka Minami own goal

Freya Godfrey scores winner on stroke of half-time

London City move into WSL's top six with victory

Jonty Colman

BBC Sport journalist

Freya Godfrey inspired the London City Lionesses to their first league win under head coach Eder Maestre, coming from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 at Broadfield Stadium.

Hosts Brighton had dominated for most of the first half and took a deserved lead when Kiko Seike finished off a superb team move with a clever outside-of-the-foot finish off the post.

Godfrey helped get the visitors level in the closing stages of the first half with her cross from the right being inadvertently volleyed in by Brighton defender Moeka Minami.

The London City winger then turned from provider to scorer to give the visitors the lead against the run of play. Just 21 seconds after Brighton's Nadine Noordam saw her shot denied by the post, Maestre's side countered with precision and Godfrey showed her class, cutting in from the right and finishing into the top corner.

Brighton can perhaps feel aggrieved for not being ahead at the interval having dominated for most of it. Madison Haley, whose backheel set up Seike's opener, was also denied by the post before the break.

Haley and Seike could have linked up once more to level up proceedings in Crawley, but Seike opted to shoot rather than pass and was unable to steer her effort on goal.

Visitors London City almost gifted a leveller inside the final 20 minutes as Elena Linari lost control of the ball and Haley latched on to get through on goal. Linari made amends for her error with an excellently timed sliding challenge on the edge of the penalty area.

Brighton were overseen by assistant manager Chris Roberts in the absence of Dario Vidosic. Vidosic's father, who worked as a coach at Brighton, died at the age of 64 on Tuesday.

Victory for London City was the first time they have come from behind to a win a match this season, moving them up to sixth. Brighton drop below them to seventh.

What next for these teams?

London City will host Everton in their next Women's Super League fixture on Sunday, 8 February (12:00 GMT), while Brighton travel to West Ham at the same time.

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Brighton & Hove Albion

London City Lionesses

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1C. Nnadozie

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19M. Olislagers

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2M. Vanegas

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3M. Minami

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33C. Rule

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6R. Kafaji

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8M. Symonds

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11K. Seike

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15N. Noordam

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21M. Haley

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22Carla Camacho

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27R. McLauchlan

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20O. Tvedten

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Starting XI

77Elene Lete

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3P. Pattinson

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13E. Linari

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26W. Sangaré

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2Jana Fernández

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16J. Roddar

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6María Pérez

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7Lucía Corrales

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23I. Goodwin

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14F. Godfrey

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9K. Asllani

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5T. Goldie

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15S. Franssi

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88G. Geyoro

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33A. Kennedy

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8S. Kumagai

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