Man Utd Women 3 - 0 Brighton Women

Manchester United rose to second in the Women’s Super League table with a rousing 3-0 win over Brighton as their positive start to 2025 continues.

Marc Skinner’s side thumped rivals Manchester City in the derby last weekend before producing another dominant display to see off the Seagulls, who failed to register a single shot on target.

Ella Toone extended her scoring exploits with another goal to add to the impressive treble she scored against City, collecting Elisabeth Terland’s through ball in her stride and sweeping beyond Sophie Baggaley inside the second minute.

Skinner has had to fend off criticism of his side’s over-cautious approach this season – United maintain the meanest defence in the league – but they are improving at the top end too, scoring 14 times across four games in all competitions since the turn of the year.

Hinata Miyazawa rifled home a second with her left foot nine minutes after Toone’s opener, while Celin Bizet added a classy third midway through the second half when nutmegging Maisie Symonds and beating Baggaley from range.

Brighton are still well placed in fifth but have started the year with back-to-back defeats, conceding five times.

Analysis: Man Utd continue to answer critics

Sky Sports’ Laura Hunter:

“Credit must be given to Skinner for the way his side has risen to the challenge set earlier this season. Building a solid foundation was always priority number one. Makes sense, but it meant United lacked creativity, drawing criticism for being too cautious, while fans moaned about poor entertainment value.

“Now the goals are flowing, but the basics are still fundamental. Every aspect of performance is treated with care. They boast the best defensive record in the league and have won four WSL games on the spin by an aggregate score of 12-2, including three clean sheets.

“Ella Toone epitomises the uptick, becoming the first player to score a Manchester derby hat-trick before setting the tone with the breakthrough goal against Brighton. It’s becoming hard to argue with the consistency of output.”

Skinner delighted with Toone form

Man Utd head coach Marc Skinner:

“We got exactly what we wanted – three points and high energy. I wanted us to be a bit more ruthless first half with more goals but I’m really happy. There were some standout individual performances but as a collective really good too.

“We’re a team. We have high competition and I want players who come in to make a real difference. I want us to keep in this real safe space but also try to push on.”

On the performance of Toone: “Scoring goals and smiling, showing that love for the game. It’s good for football and it’s good for Ella and Manchester United. She’s playing with freedom, but I want her to keep that – this is her pitch.”

On the performance of Miyazawa: “It took a while, but her intelligence in the defensive phase and build-up phase is excellent, and she took her goal superbly. We think she’s got more goals in her. She’s a class act.”

Vidosic critical of errors

Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic:

“We weren’t at the level in the first 20 minutes and gifted two goals. The luck is against us a little bit at the moment but we know we need to be better. They were levels above us.

“Two many technical errors and it turns the game into transitions – that’s how they like to play – and we can’t compete. When you don’t control the game against United you’re going to have a long night.

“That’s been the theme of this week, shooting ourselves in the foot. I thought we were a bit disorganised and a bit off in all areas.”