Pompey Women’s Manager Jay Sadler was “full of emotion” after Pompey’s dramatic 3-2 win over Brighton at Fratton Park.
In front of a record 2,906 fans, on a Monday night in pre-season, Pompey scored two late goals to turn the game on it’s head and get a deserved win.
The Blues had taken an early lead when Goulden charged down Brighton’s goalkeeper and stole the ball before converting into an empty net with less than a minute on the clock.
Brighton’s equaliser came a few minutes later, a misplaced pass at the back was pounced on and converted in front of the Fratton End.
Brighton then took an undeserved lead in the 68th minute, when Haughton’s clearance struck Gane and bounced straight to Brighton for an easy tap in.
But Pompey bounced back, and after hitting the woodwork for a fourth time, they found the equaliser as Jones scored from a seemingly impossible angle. Just moments later fired a cross in for Adaway to convert emphatically and send the crowd home happy.
Speaking to The 1898, Jay Sadler was full of praise for his Pompey team
“Full of emotion right now if I’m being honest. The crowd, the atmosphere was what makes you so proud to be part of the football club. It’s a special club that gets you, and when it gets under your skin there’s no going back. Special club, special city and we felt that tonight.
“A huge thank you to the football club for housing us and a great occasion to link up with Her Game Too. Tonight was a fantastic advert for the women’s game.
“A youthful Brighton side full of quality, full of young, talented players that will go on to have big futures in the game. For us we’ll have a lot of learnings, we started off very well scoring inside a minute, chasing a ball down to score a goal.
“Couple of mistakes for their goals. Disappointed by the way we were sloppy in possession for the first 20-25 but we grew into the game, created a lot of chances in that first half just couldn’t convert.
“Second half we went through the gears, created so many chances. We weren’t ruthless enough, we should have scored a lot more goals. Something we need to be better at. And teams will punish you.
“The belief not only form the players and the staff but from the fans pulled us through. You could feel there was something happening, the noise, the chants, the Play Up Pompey. Phenomenal for a friendly match on a Monday night.
“Hopefully we’ll get more support when we’re down at Havant or the John Jenkins in the league games. Then we’ll get more showcase events because the interest is there, and when given visibility and a platform the numbers are there. You look at the Euros at the minute with the millions of people watching England game, and tonight nearly 3,000 watching us.
“Can’t thank the fans enough, can’t thank the club enough. Once the emotion has died down we can delve into the game, take a lot of learnings from it. It’s still preseason, though it didn’t feel like it tonight! Still games to go and we’ll take what we can from tonight into Crystal Palace at the weekend.
