Kiko Seike sealed a 1-0 victory for Brighton at the King Power Stadium, leaving the Foxes four points adrift of safety with as many games remaining.

The Japan winger’s far-post finish concluded a slick counter-attack, with Brighton’s one-touch football locating Seike at the far post to sweep in her seventh goal of the Women’s Super League campaign.

The 48th-minute strike ensured the Seagulls were not to come away empty-handed after a dominant display saw chances fall for Seike and Maisie Symonds.

The former impressively flicked an effort narrowly wide with her back to goal, while Brighton captain Symonds arced her freekick just shy of the top-left in the 20th-minute and later tested Janina Leitzig with a long-range effort.

While Leicester largely lived on scraps, often gifting possession to the Seagulls through stray passes, winger Alisha Lehmann held the best opportunity when she burst past Brighton left-back Marisa Olislagers in the 28th minute.

The Switzerland forward couldn’t apply the finishing touch as she did when netting her first Foxes goal against Aston Villa, with Lehmann’s cut back to Shannon O’Brien creating an unfavourable angle for the striker as she fired wide. 

Leicester head coach Rick Passmoor made several changes in the second half with striker Rachel Williams clinching a landmark 200th WSL appearance, however, the Foxes late attacks failed to test Brighton goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.

The narrow defeat sees Leicester remain bottom of the WSL table on nine points, four adrift of 11th-placed West Ham following their 1-1 draw with London City Lionesses.

Meanwhile, the victory sees Brighton soar from ninth to sixth in the mid-table battle with 21 points.

Flailing Foxes set for promotion-relegation playoff?

Rick Passmoor’s side arrived at the King Power with mounting pressure to secure their first league victory of the year and close the gap on West Ham.

With their opponents being a Brighton side who had not won in their last four matches, the Foxes would have surely outlined the fixture as one for claiming all three points.

And while the hosts fought well as goalkeeper Leitzig parryied away a header from Brighton’s Caitlin Hayes and laid claim to a long-range strike from Rosa Kafaji, a swift Albion attack soon caught out the Foxes defence.

Kafaji ran in behind right-back Ashleigh Neville to lay the ball into the path of Seike, who had too exploited the space left uncovered by Leicester’s Julie Thibaud and Sarah Mayling to strike the ball home.

Seike’s conversion subsequently demanded the Foxes score twice to secure victory — a feat they hadn’t managed to achieve in any of their previous 17 league matches.

Indeed the task proved too difficult for the hosts, with Lehmann’s indecisiveness in front of goal allowing the Brighton defence to clear the danger. 

Winger Hannah Cain also desperately tried to snatch an equaliser in additional time as she drove into the box, only for her cut back to be intercepted by Hayes.

Head coach Passmoor remains adamant his side will not finish bottom of the table, telling BBC Radio Leicester that his players “gave 110% and just need to maintain the mentality and turn a corner.” 

But with a testing final four fixtures including matches against European Champions Arsenal and WSL title holders Chelsea, fight may not be enough if the same lack of quality continues in front of goal from the Foxes.

Seike returns Brighton to winning ways despite squandered opportunities

Landing in England just days after clinching Asian Cup victory with Japan, Seike displayed no signs of jet lag in a lively performance at the King Power Stadium.

The winger showed her composure to convert her 10th goal of the season in all competitions, extending her lead at the top of Brighton’s goalscoring charts. 

No other Albion player has challenged Seike for the taliswoman title, with 32-year-old Kirby the closest player with four goals in all competitions. 

Brighton head coach Dario Vidošić has often discussed his side’s goalscoring struggles, attributing it not to a lack of attacks but rather to his players “rushing and crossing from deep” rather than “looking for the better option”.

Indeed the side often attempted to go direct against the Foxes, with Madison Haley looping a long ball toward Kiko Seike in the 26th minute. The winger nodded well wide from the left-side of the box while Kirby, who had made a more central run, frustratedly gestured that she would have been the better option. 

Kafaji’s decision 10 minutes later to unleash a long-range effort rather than pass to Jelena Čanković on the edge of the box also left the Serbian flapping her arms as the Swede’s strike was easily gathered by Leitzig.

While the Seagulls were not punished by Leicester for failing to kill the tie, Vidošić’s players have learned the hard way that this will not always be the case.

A trio of goals inside nine minutes from West Ham saw Brighton’s two-goal advantage disintegrate in Dagenham when the sides met in early February. 

The full-time frustrations and disappointment then are feelings Vidošić’s players will want to avoid as they fight to maintain sixth position and close in on fifth in the league table.

It will be a testing conclusion to the season, however, for Brighton as they host the near faultless league leaders Manchester City on April 26, followed by matches against Arsenal and Manchester United in May — both sides are chasing a top-three finish to secure Champions League football.

Attacks may come few and far between in such contests, making it paramount that the players make their advances count rather than rush their final ball. 

If the Seagulls manage to do so, their final match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Amex Stadium on May 16 could prove decisive for which team finishes higher.

The Lilywhites sit eight points clear of Brighton but with the side struggling for form and Brighton having a game in hand, the fight for fifth may yet be foregone.