Hayes’ side had plenty of opportunities in the game, but were unable to make the all-important breakthrough as we were held to a goalless draw at the People’s Pension Stadium.

‘I think we know that we’re disappointed because we played well. We kept the ball well, we created clear-cut chances but we didn’t execute them. I felt they were big chances for us.

‘I’m disappointed but I’m really pleased with the performance, I thought we played really, really well. It’s a weird year, lots of things are going to happen. We all know it’s going to be a very strange season and for that reason I don’t know yet if it’s a point gained or two lost.’

Fran Kirby, Pernille Harder, Erin Cuthbert and Beth England all had opportunities to put the Blues ahead yesterday but just could not find the back of the net.

‘Fran's one-on-one, Beth’s header, Erin had two chances, Pernille had a couple, enough to win the game,' noted Hayes. For us to dominate like we did in the first half, we had to end the game then. They like to time waste, they like to take tactical time outs and things like that so I think they killed the momentum in the second half and though we had our best chances we didn’t finish them.

‘I enjoyed the performance, if one had gone in we’d be talking about how well we played today.

‘Did we prepare our team in a good way today? Yes. Did they perform well? Yes. We just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net. We’ve come here before and not really played well, many times, and even won. So, for us we have to combine both playing well and winning and that’s the only missing thing, we just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.’

Brighton, although they did not have much possession, had a couple of chances of their own.

‘It can go the other way, the team can get one chance and score but for us the disappointing thing is we felt we played well and we haven’t finished the game off.’

It is a quick turnaround for the Blues as we host West Ham United at Kingsmeadow on Wednesday evening in a bid to get our first Women’s Super League win of 2022 under our belts.

Hayes explains what she is looking for from her team in that game.

‘A response, just to keep working on the fine details, the execution of what we need to do in the finishing phase and I’m sure we’ll be able to do that.’