Hope Powell would love to add a striker to her Albion squad.

But she knows there are more pressing matters at hand for now.

The Barclays FA WSL season is over after being halted by the coronavirus crisis.

Now thoughts turn to whether next season can start on time, whether it will be behind closed doors and whether all clubs will make it to the start line.

Powell hopes to see all 12 who played this term again present in the top flight.

That includes Liverpool, who occupied the relegation place when play stopped.

She would like to see them joined by Championship leaders Aston Villa, who only dropped two points in 2019-20.

And she hopes women’s sport in general does not suffer as a consequence of the cash crisis resulting from the pandemic.

Powell said: “There has been concern and a lot of debate and chat around that.

“It is a difficult one to answer. Hopefully, money has been ring-fenced in other sports.

“Certainly at clubs, I am hoping money has been ring-fenced to support women’s football.

“Obviously, this is so unexpected and unprecedented that no-one could have foreseen this was going to happen.

“Speaking from Brighton’s point of view, the club is committed to supporting the women’s game over a long period given the work they are doing to build new facilities and an increase in staff.

“They committed to getting us into WSL and want us to stay there.

“The resources they put forward to back that has been absolutely brilliant.”

Powell would not be surprised if next term kicks off with no fans.

She added: “Now the league is terminated, you have to look ahead to next season and what it is going to look like.

“It will only start when it is safe to do so.

“If they want it to start, it might have to be behind closed doors.

“We don’t know. I don’t know if anyone knows what we are dealing with.

“It is unprecedented. People are trying to do the right thing.

“The FA are trying to do the right thing by the women’s game and trying to put the right protocols in place where we can.

“They are listening to players’ views and staff views.

“Hopefully the new season will start in September. If it needs to be pushed back, we will have to do that.”

Powell is happy players have been well looked after during the league shutdown.

She added: “I can’t talk for other clubs, I can only speak about Brighton players.

“We’ve been very open and transparent with the players.

“We’ve taken the players with us every step of the way, we’ve fed back on every meeting we’ve had with the FA, just so they know what the processes were, are going to be, what it could look like going forward.

“I think when it all happened, the players were quite diligent with their programmes.

“We had target dates. They are very enthusiastic to come back.

“We had a players rep, a few players, we wanted them to voice their concerns, their feelings and their fears.

“All of that was fed back to the FA, fed back to our staff, and then the FA took it upon themselves to have a meeting of the players. That was really good.

“It gave the players a platform to share any concerns, any doubts that they had.”

Albion end the season with just 11 goals, of which wide player Aileen Whelan has scored five, from 16 games.

Three of the 11 came in their one match at the Amex as they beat Birmingham City.

Powell rates Whelan and left-back Fliss Gibbons the biggest individual successes of the season but knows what her side need now.

She said: “A goalscorer would be nice. An out-and-out goalscorer, which are hard to come by. That is where we have really struggled.

“We concede too many but we are creating chances now and we need someone to consistently convert.

“We did a lot of work to tighten up at the back and we are getting there.

“We have brought in some decent players in that respect so it is really about converting chances.

“As you know they are not easy to come by. We are continuously looking.”

It is an important time in terms of recruitment and, in the men’s and women’s game, a striker is the one everybody is trying to get.”