Poppy Pattinson and Danielle Carter scored twice in four minutes at St Andrew's to send Brighton through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, knocking out Championship side, Birmingham City.
Here's what Seagull's interim manager, Amy Merricks, had to say after the match:
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On the result
“I’m really proud of the squad, I thought we managed the game well, but at times we need to learn quickly and control the game.”
“Ultimately we were good in the first half, we spoke at half time and we said we could do better than this.”
“Second half, I give credit to Birmingham, they came out with real force and put us under some real pressure. That’s where we need to go back to controlling the game at points, but on the whole, I was impressed with our control on the ball and that we produced some good opportunities.”
“As a result, we get a corner and score from it, and we get a penalty and we score from it – it was a whistlestop tour of our performance, and the clean sheet is massive for us.”
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On the opposition
“If you are forcing your opposition to hit the woodwork instead of the goal, it shows that you have players in the right position.”
“There were some big blocks at moments, all credit to them, they came out to us, but we understand that in those moments we are going to have to do the hard graft.”
“If they hit the woodwork, we are in the right positions to protect the goal.”
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On the joint clubs’ results
The men’s team were also successful this weekend, after beating League Two side Grimsby Town in the FA Cup, to also progress to the semi-finals. Mericks also acknowledged that this was a big achievement for both teams.
“Its momentum and spirit for the whole club. It means a big deal to the club, and it feels good to give back to the fans.”
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The player’s view
Poppy Pattinson opened the lead for her side with a well placed in swinging corner. She also commented on the result, and how much it means to her teammates after a managerial shift over the last fortnight.
“We are over the moon - that was the aim coming into this game.”
“Set pieces are important in every game. We’ve defiantly been working on them the last couple of weeks, and I can’t complain about the goal!”
“We’re buzzing, this is massive for us. We’ve been gaining momentum over the last couple of weeks, and we’ve felt together as a team. We’re all building relationships and you could definitely see that today.”
“Football is up and down all the time. It’s about how you deal with these things, and we’ve dealt with it well, and I think it portrayed that in our performance.”
“We’re a together group, we fight for each other and that showed today.”
