Manchester City captain Alex Greenwood said "sometimes you have to win ugly" after her side narrowly beat Brighton & Hove Albion for their first Women's Super League victory of the season.
Khadija Shaw's first-half strike - a first domestic goal of the campaign for the Jamaican striker - was enough to seal the success, and followed their 2-2 draw at Arsenal on the opening weekend.
It was her 75th City goal in 86 appearances for the club since signing from Bordeaux in 2021.
While City dominated, they lacked quality in front of goal, scoring once, despite having an expected goals (xG) value of over three.
"We got the job done," Greenwood told BBC Two.
"Sometimes in this league you have to win ugly. I thought off the ball today we were better. Against Arsenal we struggled with that at times but we have worked really hard on that, and I thought we saw an improvement in that.

"This league is getting tougher and tougher ever year, and we saw that with Brighton, it was a tough game. We take the win and the clean sheet all day."

City were also boosted as midfielder Jill Roord made her first appearance in eight months as a late substitute, having been sidelined since January when she ruptured her anterior cruciate knee ligament against Manchester United.

Gareth Taylor's side failed to break through Brighton early on and could only muster half chances through Lauren Hemp and Shaw.