Skinner: We dug in and stuck with it

“The most important thing is the three points,” he said. “It wasn’t clean, we should have been up in the game in the first half, but full credit to the players to dig in, to stick with it.”

In the first half United’s players began to cut frustrated figures, as the visitors repelled every opportunity that Skinner’s side carved out.

And the United Women manager revealed what he said to his players at half-time.

“[The half-time team talk] was more about our mindset,” he said. “I asked them to play like women, and not like girls with inexperienced decisions.

“We’ve had this experience too many times now and we have to keep learning from it. The better you get, the more teams will sit and try and deny you spaces to score.”

Following the break, United began to pile pressure on our visitors, eventually being rewarded when Leah Galton fired a left-footed shot that trickled over the line and into the bottom corner.

Skinner was delighted with the reaction of his team and lauded our ability to break down Brighton and get the crucial goal.

He said: “[In the] second half, we definitely grew in our maturity and took the game.

“I feel we grew in our experience. We thought rather than just reacting and grew our emotional state to be better controlled.”

The WSL now takes a break for international football, and many of the United Women squad are travelling to represent their countries.

Skinner is urging his squad to be ready for the crucial season run-in upon their return.

He said: “Now is their time to go and enjoy their camp, but then we’ve got three games where we’ve got to be fully focused, fully ready and hungry.

“Go and enjoy these moments but then come back and get right back down to business.”