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Substitute Rinsola Babajide scored a dramatic late winner for Liverpool to get their league season up and running and deny Brighton the point they probably deserved

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Sun 23 Sep 2018 09.21 EDTFirst published on Sun 23 Sep 2018 06.21 EDT
Brighton and Hove Albion host Liverpool.
Brighton and Hove Albion host Liverpool. Photograph: Dan Istitene/Getty Images
Brighton and Hove Albion host Liverpool. Photograph: Dan Istitene/Getty Images

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That's it from this one

Thanks for your company – it was nip and tuck for most of the 94 minutes, but Liverpool snatched it and, my word, they needed that!

If you fancy some more minute-by-minute action, Ben Fisher is presiding over West Ham v Chelsea – that’s in the men’s Premier League – for your pleasure:

Enjoy that, and see you next time!

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Jepson: “We wanted some fresh legs in midfield and I was delighted it went into the net.”

Fresh legs were what did the job here. If that was her only game in charge, she’s not half made an impact.

Babajide speaks: “The ball just fell to me and I thought I’d just hit it and it worked out. When Neil was here he went for character so we have gelled as a team and it’s been a good atmosphere here. This gives us confidence, we have a lot of work to get done to match the top teams but it’s a work in progress.”

That was the 20-year-old Babajide’s first WSL goal and she can’t wipe the smile off her face! Liverpool rise to sixth, Brighton sink to ninth. I think defeat was harsh on Brighton there; they were the better side in the second half, for me, and a draw was probably about right on the balance of play. But Jepson produced a masterstroke from the bench in introducing Babajide and that, in the end, is often how games are won!

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Full-time: Brighton 0-1 Liverpool

That late goal by the substitute, Rinsola Babajide, gets Liverpool off and running! Crisis, what crisis?

90+4 min: A late chance for Brighton, though! A deep delivery to the back stick is headed across for Buet, who can’t quite get the ball to sit up for her and, on the turn, can’t direct it towards goal! That was surely their final opening.

90+3 min: Liverpool are almost there – Brighton are comfortably at arm’s length as the clock ticks slowly ... or quickly, depending on who you’re following ... down.

90+1 min: Liverpool slow things right down near the Brighton corner flag – game management! – but we’ll see four extra minutes here, so it ain’t quite done yet.

90 min: Gillett had looked so composed today, with hands and feet. She’ll be gutted about that goal when she sees it again.

89 min: Brighton are piling on the pressure now but they’re almost out of time. Have they got one more chance in them? This had seemed for all the world to be fizzling out into a nil-nil.

87 min: Close to an equaliser! Green heads a foot over from Williams’s cross. Liverpool keep their lead and Jepson, the long-serving club stalwart, deserves all the credit here for making such a bold change – which has paid off handsomely!

Goal! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool (Babajide 85)

What a substitution! Sweetman-Kirk tries to make room for a shot on the 18-yard line but a home defender blocks. Babajide, who came on five minutes ago, seizes onto the ball and takes aim from outside the box. It’s not especially well struck but seems to catch Gillett napping. She scurries across her goal but can’t stop the ball nestling in the corner, and Liverpool seem to have won this!

85 min: Now Powell makes a substitution. Brazil, a game runner but who hasn’t had much change out of Robe, is replaced by the Ireland international Sophie Perry.

83 min: Williams heads Clarke’s cross away. Clarke has switched back to the right. She’s been changing flanks constantly but not to the effect that, once or twice, she has threatened.

82 min: That was a pretty attacking change from Jepson. Can Liverpool seize some momentum? Not just yet. Brighton press again but Matthews dispossesses Green.

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80 min: Liverpool make a second sub. Christie Murray, less involved in this half, is replaced by ex-Palace and Millwall player Babajide. She’s a highly-rated speedster who might add a little something in the last knockings.

78 min: Green is fine now and the corner will come in. Once again, an offence is spotted before play is allowed to develop. A touch pedantic, there.

77 min: Preuss deals rather less certainly with a Buet free-kick, punching it against Bradley-Auckland and out for a corner. Green, the Brighton striker, got a knock as she came out to challenge Preuss – and is taking some treatment to her knee now.

75 min: Now here’s Clarke, taking on Barton down the left and making half a yard for the cross. It’s stood up into the six-yard box but Gillett take it cleanly.

74 min: The sun is out now; the rain appears to be abating. Will it bring us a goal? Not a lot has happened in the last 10 minutes.

71 min: I’m struggling to see where either side has the quality to unlock the other at the moment. Liverpool have struggled to involve Clarke since half-time and have not yet given Sweetman-Kirk, who is definitely a danger if afforded service, a kick since she came on.

69 min: Brazil gets another run at Robe but I’m not sure she’s really beaten her once today – the left-back is having a fine game. She does get a throw-in this time, and it’s flicked on towards the penalty spot, but Coombs is there to avert danger again.

66 min: This is definitely Brighton’s half at the moment. They’re asking the questions and the likes of Green, Natkiel and Whelan are far more involved.

64 min: Matthews goes into the book for a late tackle on, I think, Whelan. She can’t really complain, and doesn’t. Buet takes the free-kick and it bobbles around the Liverpool box awhile before Coombs hammers clear.

62 min: Preuss is worked again by a 20-yarder by Brett, who could maybe have caught it better. There’s a little more fizz and tempo to this at the moment.

60 min: Sweetman-Kirk replaces Linnett, who has battled gamely up front with little support, for Liverpool. The newbie is an ex-Evertonian, and a striker of some pedigree.

58 min: Chance for Green! A flowing move, which began with another accurate ball out from Gillett, sees Natkiel work the ball to Whelan, who slips in Green on the left of the area. It’s a good opportunity but Preuss, standing firm, manages to save with her legs from the angle. Brighton’s best opening, by some way.

56 min: That’s a better strike from Barton, the Brighton player wellying one from a similar distance but seeing Preuss get behind it well. That might be their first shot on target. At the other end Charles gets away from Barton on the left but floats her cross too close to Gillett. Christie Murray is then the latest to take an inconsequential pot shot.

54 min: Charles drills well off target from 3o yards for Liverpool. Too many of today’s shots have been speculative so far. At the other end Brighton earn a corner. They take it short and – criminally really – stray offside immediately.

52 min: Brighton are very confident when it comes to playing from the back, and Gillett’s distribution is generally excellent. They almost play themselves into a spot of bother now, but sort it out before Linnett can get too much encouragement.

51 min: It’s a fairly slow start to the half really, though. A bit niggly and stop-start. Perhaps this will be a game won from the bench in which case, as we mentioned earlier, Brighton have rather more options than their visitors.

48 min: Clarke is back on the right and tries to get behind Gibbons, but the Brighton defender does well. The early pressure is coming from the team in red.

46 min: It’s Green, who was whacked on the inside of the leg by Murray’s drilled ball straight after the restart. On a day like this, that’ll sting! She will be back with us though.

Peeeeeep! Liverpool restart us

And almost immediately there’s a Brighton player down in the centre circle ...

Half-time: Brighton 0-0 Liverpool

It’s not been a classic in the damp Sussex weather, although both sides have played some decent stuff and will feel they can push on after the break. Clarke has had the only real chance in open play; she’ll be hoping to use her pace again as spaces open up in the second half.

45 min: Linnett takes down a high pass brilliantly and holds it up well after a purposeful run – but has absolutely no support and eventually is shrugged off the ball. There was absolutely nothing more she could do there really.

43 min: Buet is receiving treatment at the moment, I think to her lower leg, so we have a small hold-up. The rain is coming down at a fair pelt now. She jogs off and will shortly jog back on; she’s made of tough stuff.

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