‘It’s hard to replicate’ – Brighton expect challenge in building on success says Symonds | OneFootball

Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Maisie Symonds says that the club face an even tougher challenge to equal or exceed last season’s record finish in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Seagulls ended the 2024/2025 campaign in fifth position in the table, their highest-ever ranking. It was a hugely impressive season for Brighton & Hove Albion as they made their mark in head coach Dario Vidošić’s first campaign in charge.

Historically, the fifth-placed team have struggled to replicate their achievement in back-to-back seasons and Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Symonds is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task facing her side this season.

“It’s hard to replicate, especially when the league is growing every single year,” Symonds told WSL Full-Time. “Even if you continue to progress, other teams are maybe progressing at an even faster speed.

“You have to keep on it. Just because we got fifth last year, we can’t expect that being a given again this year. We know that it’s going to be harder than ever to get that spot.

“We’ve been here [in training] and we’ve been working [hard]. The club are trying to get the squad perfect for the start of the season. We are trying to build-up our fitness levels in pre-season and get lots of games in our legs too. We want to replicate or go even better than we did last year.”

Brighton & Hove Albion boss Vidošić is not one to focus on league rankings. Symonds explained that the pre-season messages are about the Brighton & Hove Albion squad striving for perfection in their performances, both collectively and as individuals.

She said “He’s big on how we are playing and the style. He’s very much a perfectionist on how he wants us to play, how he wants us to develop and get better. He’s also really into player development. He’s bang into that; he’s been taking us out on the training pitch, trying to get the core of the group playing how he wants us to play.

“Of course, we’ve got a bit of a head start on last season because he came in fresh and we all had to learn whereas now, we know exactly how he wants us to play and we are just refining it.

“It’s been about us refining, working on the things he has wanted us to work on. We’ve not set a goal in terms of the table but we want to keep pushing on, doing even better than we did [last season].”

The 2024/2025 campaign saw Symonds continue to cement her place in the Brighton & Hove Albion side while she caught the eye of England head coach Sarina Wiegman for the first time, gaining a senior call-up in March. Symonds is thankful to club boss Vidošić for the impact he has made upon her game.

She said “[He’s improved my game] so much. Last year, I was learning so much, I was struggling to show it all of the time because I felt like I was being taught by him all of the time. You can’t underestimate a coach that has the faith in you to say ‘yeah, I’m willing to put you out there and start you each week’.

“That faith went a long way for me, it really gave me confidence in myself. I would say him putting his trust in me was the biggest thing [in terms of my development]. Also, along the way, he gave me things to work on across the season.”

Brighton & Hove Albion kick-off the new Barclays Women’s Super League season with a home fixture against Aston Villa on Sunday 7 September 2025. Season tickets are on-sale now and can be purchased by clicking here.