Albion are heading to the Amex on a high after a fine win on Merseyside.

Aileen Whelan ensured Jean-Luc Vasseur’s first home game in charge of Everton ended in a 1-0 defeat as her second-half strike edged a close encounter.

The win left the Seagulls third in the WSL table.

They are at the Amex next Sunday when Leicester visit.

Whelan said: “I think in the second half we showed everyone a lot more about how we can play out from the back and keep possession a lot more and luckily I got on the end of Dan Carter’s cross and we are going away with the three points.”

“I think we were just a bit too deep in the first half so when we got the ball we did not really have an outlet so we rectified that, we knew what we were doing, it was a much better performance in the second half and everyone played their part today.”

“It was wet and windy but it gave us the opportunity to keep the ball on the floor and it made us pass and move better.”

Albion had the first chance of note. Maya Le Tissier’s cross skipped off the turf and on to the head of Whelan whose downward header struck the post.

At the other end, Rikke Sevecke should have done better with a loose ball in the penalty area than stab it wide after an Izzy Christiansen corner.

The away side looked the most likely to break the deadlock as Le Tissier went close at the far post, her close-range effort deflected over the bar from an Inessa Kaagman cross.

Shortly after that, the deadlock was broken. Lee Guem-min cleverly made space with a back heel, Carter crossed from the right and Whelan bravely nodded past Everton keeper Sandy MacIver.

Everton pressed in the final half-hour but Albion stood firm.

Albion: Walsh; Koivisto, Le Tissier, Kerkdijk (Brazil 76), Williams, Gibbons; Kaagman (Symonds 83), Connolly, Whelan; Lee, Carter.