Having fought back from 2-0 down and equalised to make it 2-2, West Ham Women’s team had their hearts broken after a late strike from Fran Kirby saw them narrowly defeated 3-2 away against Brighton.

West Ham looked as though they were on their way to picking up a hard earned point. Goals from Kiko Seike and Rachel McLauchlan saw hosts Brighton sail to a 2-0 lead. This was before two goals from Hammers captain Katrina Gorry, her first goals since joining the club, in the space of five minutes made it 2-2 and brought Rehanne Skinner’s side back into the game.

Unfortunately for the Hammers, a matter of minutes after scoring her second Australian international Gorry had to be substituted having picked up an injury. Soon after, with eight minutes of the 90 left to play, Fran Kirby scored what proved to be the decisive goal. The former Chelsea forward fired her strike in off the post to make it 3-2 and seal all three points for Brighton.

After the game, speaking to the Club’s official website, Hammers boss Rehanne Skinner praised the character shown by her side and felt as though they deserved to come away with something. “I think the character we showed to come from 2-0 down was superb and, in the second half in particular, we had so many good chances.” said Skinner.

“We’ve had two great one on ones, an opportunity where we’ve hit the crossbar and obviously Mini’s scored two spectacular goals.” added Skinner.

Despite her disappointment that her side were unable to pick up a result, Skinner believes the Hammers performances are continuing to improve with each match.

“When you put yourself in that position, you really hope you’re going to get something out of the game. You think you’ve done enough. It was difficult to take today, but, again, I think the positives are that the performances are improving week by week.” said the Hammers boss.