Everton boss Brian Sørensen addressed the media on Thursday morning, ahead of his side’s Friday night clash against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

With the news breaking this morning that Sørensen and his assistant, Stephen Neligan, respectively signed a new contract that keeps them at the club until 2026.

The 2023/24 campaign has been one plagued of injury woes for the Toffees, often having key players out through long term injuries. Despite the rough trot his side have found themselves on, Sørensen looks towards the future- following his new deal.

“Yeah, I am really happy, we have a good core of players here, a good group to build on. Most importantly though, my little girl is happy! She loves it here!

We have to recruit in the summer, we know we don’t work with the biggest budget so we have to be creative with what we are doing in the market.”

Sørensen’s assistant of five years in Neligan additionally chose to remain at the club in his assistant role, as the duo now approach the five year mark in their time spent together.

“I’ve worked with him for the fifth year now so we know each other well. He’s a very skilful coach and we work very well together. I am very happy he’s staying with us.”

One of the main talking points about Everton’s season has been that of injuries, with many key players facing prolonged spells on the sidelines throughout a turbulent season for the Toffees.

Nobody has summed up the unfortunate luck more than keeper, Emily Ramsey, who announced on her Twitter this week, that she sustained an injury to her ankle, in the build up to a training game which would’ve seen her return to action this weekend.

“Unfortunately, Emily Ramsey, who was one of the reasons we wanted to have that training game to play some minutes, the day before she was unlucky, and twisted her other ankle.

“She’s going to be out for a lot of weeks, same as before. We’re really upset for her, she’s been fighting her way back but that’s football sometimes, she knows what it takes to return from an injury.”

The reverse fixture between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion, came way back on the opening weekend- as an Elisabeth Terland’s early double saw Melissa Phillips’s side watch their season get off to the best possible start.

It’s now Mikey Harris steering the ship of the Seagulls, as the Brighton interim manager has them sat impressively in eighth place- twelve points above the drop.

Speaking on facing Harris, Sørensen said, “When we’ve analysed them, it’s fun to see some of the things they are trying to do in the different phases. They have three or four shapes they can turn in to. They are very similar to us who want to try and play football and build an identity.”

Everton only find themselves three points behind Harris’ side heading to the American Express Stadium on Friday evening, as Sørensen remained clear on where he wants the season to end.

“There’s no secret that we want to end up as high as we can. We haven’t been happy with the points we’ve been having this season. The performances have been good, but we need the three points.

When we play teams around us, we try and use that extra energy and extra motivation to the players. We have four games left and three of them in my books are really winnable. We’ll do everything we can on Friday to take the three points.”

Everton will travel to American Express Stadium on Friday evening, as they gear up to face Brighton & Hove Albion at 19:00 GMT.