Brighton condemn Leicester City to seventh-straight league loss
At a glance
Caitlin Hayes denied by smart Janina Leitzig save
Kiko Seike gives Brighton the lead
Leicester remain rooted to the bottom of the table
Leicester City's hopes of avoiding a relegation play-off were handed a blow with a 1-0 defeat by Brighton and Hove Albion at King Power Stadium.
Kiko Seike scored the only goal of the game early in the second half for the visitors to send the Foxes to a seventh-straight WSL loss.
The Seagulls dominated the first half with close to 70% possession but were wasteful when chances came.
Caitlin Hayes had the best opportunity in heading a corner towards the near post, only to be denied by a smart reaction save from Janina Leitzig.
It felt as though the visitors needed a bit of magic and Fran Kirby delivered that just three minutes into the second half.
An inch-perfect pass from the 32-year-old set Rosa Kafaji through on goal and the Sweden forward unselfishly squared for Seike to tap into an empty net.
Kirby nearly made sure of the result in stoppage time with a wonderful long-range effort but was denied by a brilliant Leitzig save.
Brighton move up to sixth in the WSL with the win, while Leicester remain bottom, four points adrift of West Ham though with a game in hand.
Analysis: Foxes fail to ease relegation worries
Of course, if you don't score in football, you won't win and Sunday marked yet another game where the Foxes failed to fire.
Rick Passmoor's side have found the net just twice in their last six WSL games and they showed no signs of bucking that trend against Brighton.
The Seagulls barely got out of second gear and yet were never put under any threat by the home side.
Leicester only registered five shots across the 90 minutes, none of which were on target.
It has been the story of the season for the Foxes. They have the lowest shot accuracy, lowest conversion rate and fewest big chances created out of any side in the WSL.
Passmoor's team, who have picked up seven of their nine points on home soil this season, could not be accused of lacking for effort, but the lack of quality was stark.
With four games remaining of the WSL season, Leicester will need a drastic change of fortunes to have any hope of avoiding a relegation play-off.
What's next for these teams?
Leicester City return to action on Sunday, 26 April when they travel to London City Lionesses in the WSL (12:00 BST), while Brighton travel to Arsenal for an FA Cup quarter-final tie on Sunday, 5 April (13:00 BST).
Player of the match
After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.
