Freya Godfrey inspired the London City Lionesses to their first league win under head coach Eder Maestre, coming from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 at Broadfield Stadium.

Hosts Brighton had dominated for most of the first half and took a deserved lead when Kiko Seike finished off a superb team move with a clever outside-of-the-foot finish off the post.

Godfrey helped get the visitors level in the closing stages of the first half with her cross from the right being inadvertently volleyed in by Brighton defender Moeka Minami.

The London City winger then turned from provider to scorer to give the visitors the lead against the run of play. Just 21 seconds after Brighton's Nadine Noordam saw her shot denied by the post, Maestre's side countered with precision and Godfrey showed her class, cutting in from the right and finishing into the top corner.

Brighton can perhaps feel aggrieved for not being ahead at the interval having dominated for most of it. Madison Haley, whose backheel set up Seike's opener, was also denied by the post before the break.

Haley and Seike could have linked up once more to level up proceedings in Crawley, but Seike opted to shoot rather than pass and was unable to steer her effort on goal.

Visitors London City almost gifted a leveller inside the final 20 minutes as Elena Linari lost control of the ball and Haley latched on to get through on goal. Linari made amends for her error with an excellently timed sliding challenge on the edge of the penalty area.

Brighton were overseen by assistant manager Chris Roberts in the absence of Dario Vidosic. Vidosic's father, who worked as a coach at Brighton, died at the age of 64 on Tuesday.

"It means a lot, but it's maybe not the way that I prefer to win the game," said Maestre.

"We know this match, with all the environment that happened around the very sad situation that [Brighton] suffered this week, we know that situation would empower them to give an extra motivation to play the way they did."

Victory for London City was the first time they have come from behind to a win a match this season, moving them up to sixth. Brighton drop below them to seventh.

In a game where London City offered very little in terms of attacking quality and struggled to have sustained periods of possession, the quality of Godfrey allowed them to punish a Brighton side who were unable to take their chances.

The visitors managed just four shots to Brighton's 17 and their expected goals tally of 0.21 was just a snip of the 1.57 mustered by hosts Brighton.

First, Godfrey showed the pace and directness to force Minami's own goal with a cross into a dangerous area, albeit with a slice of luck as Minami's misguided clearance beat a stranded Chiamaka Nnadozie.

While there was more fortune in that Godfrey's winner came seconds after a Brighton chance was denied by the post, London City showed composure on the break.

A sense of familiarity came in captain Kosovare Asllani, London City's leading assist maker, laying off the ball to London City's now top scorer in the league, Godfrey.

"It's a privilege but I obviously cannot take all the credit," said Godfrey.

"My team-mates worked so hard for 90 minutes and we really had to grovel it out."

London City will host Everton in their next Women's Super League fixture on Sunday, 8 February (12:00 GMT), while Brighton travel to West Ham at the same time.

Head here to get involved