Smith's pride after Lewes 'fight'.

Shania Hayles scored a deserved second-half goal for the Robins as they ground out a gritty performance at The Dripping Pan.

The result takes Smith's side back to the top of the Barclays Women's Championship and the Head Coach insists that her side are ready to take the pressure that comes with it.

"It was a really tough, a real fight out there," said Smith. "Long parts of the game weren’t nice to watch but I'm really pleased with how resilient the players were tonight and the emphasis was that we wanted to come away from tonight knowing where we stand.

"I’m really pleased with the three points. If we’re top of the league, then people are going to want to take that away from us and a lot of games are going to look like that between now and the end of the season.

"We’re back at the top of the table and that’s where we want to be, so we have to take the pressure that comes with it.

"We’re not happy chasing so now that we’re back at the top, we’re going to do everything we can to stay there.

"It’s not going to be easy; it’s not going to be plain sailing and there’ll be lots of changes before the end of the season – that’s the type of league it is.

"It’s going to be a really interesting last eight games."

Smith lauded performances all over the pitch, from top-scorer Hayles to her back line who ticked off another clean sheet.

"I need to watch the goal back because it was all over the place. We had so many chances in the build-up, especially from set-plays so I’m glad we were able to force our way through.

"Credit has to go to Sophie Whitehouse, the goalkeeper, because she had another outstanding game.

"We praise our defensive unit a lot and I’m really pleased with that. It was a tough game from them, defending some long balls in behind towards the end which they had to be really alert to."

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City Women return home to the Robins High Performance Centre on Sunday, March 12th to take on Durham.