The Women’s Super League returned after a short break for an international period as the Aston Villa Women travelled to Manchester to take on City at the Joie Stadium.
Villa were seen as a bogey side to Man City last season, facing them three times in all competitions, winning two and drawing the other. I’m sure you can all remember the opening game of last season when Villa shocked the division with a 4-3 win at Villa Park, the first time they had scored and picked up points against City in the WSL.
Carla Ward named a changed team for this game seeing Kirsty Hanson and Adriana Leon drop to the bench and Simone Magill and Lucy Staniforth be awarded starts. The returning Lucy Parker was also named on the bench after missing the last 6 games due to an ankle injury.
The game started very slowly from both sides with Man City dominating the possession but neither team creating anything of note. Daphne Van Domselaar was forced into a few saves early on, all of which were easy saves for her to make. Villa seemed not to be connecting on the ball and struggling to get through the Man City midfield.
Jordan Nobbs found herself through on goal in the 6th minute but hit her shot slightly wide of the post.
Villa managed to make a breakthrough in the 7th minute when against the run of play, a long ball from Sarah Mayling found Magill on the right wing who calmly laid the ball off for Kenza Dali to cross into the box the first time asking, finding the unexpected Dan Turner who struck the ball on the volley with a no-look finish that any striker would be proud to score. Her strike found the bottom left-hand corner and was her first WSL goal in 18 months.
The home side once again dominated possession and piled the pressure on the Villa defence who managed to remain strong and end the half at 0-1 to Villa.
This game was starting to look a bit like Deja Vu from last season with Man City struggling to hit the target and not creating many clear-cut chances. Their best chance came at the half-hour mark when Chloe Kelly first took a shot which was deflected off Turner, then poorly cleared by Mayling to Jill Roord whose shot only found Anna Patten before falling to Kelly again with DVD making the save to stop the attack. Lauren Hemp was their biggest attacking threat throughout the first half with it seeming to only be a matter of time before she got herself on the score sheet.
The second half began the same way it ended with Man City piling on the pressure but struggling to create any chances.
Their domination paid off and their breakthrough came at the hour mark when a mess up defensively for Villa saw a cross from Kelly find an unmarked Hemp at the back post who managed to easily head home making it 1-1. With the midfield slow on tracking back Mayling cut in to mark Laura Coombs who was previously unmarked which meant that Hemp was left unmarked. She should have been the priority to be marked after her first-half performance, but there was nothing DVD could do to stop the header hitting the back of the net.
Just 5 minutes later Hemp completed the comeback and doubled her tally for the game. A corner from Kelly found the head of Alex Greenwood who managed to head across goal to the feet of Hemp who managed to once again slot home making it 2-1 to City. This time through the legs of Rachel Daly who was sitting on the front post to defend the corner. This was once again poor defensively from Villa. Rachel Corsie was originally marking Greenwood but seemed to run away from her when the ball was played in, leaving the smallest player in Maz Pacheco to mark one of the best headers of the ball in the league.
Hemp nearly scored her hat trick just 5 minutes later once again getting her head on the end of a Kelly cross but DVD saved this down low and knocked the ball out for a corner for City. Villa lost the ball when it seemed that Hanson was fouled in the defensive third but nothing was given leading to nearly a third goal for City within 10 minutes. Neither team created any chances after that with the match seeming to even out.
In the 87th minute, the home fans were calling for a penalty after Bunny Shaw seemed to be brought down in the box after a challenge from Dan Turner. Replays showed that the referee got this decision right with Shaw getting to the ball first but there was very minimal contact on the back of Shaw’s foot, which was not enough to receive a penalty. Shaw seemed to throw herself to the floor very easily.
Analysis
Once again we are talking about a poor game from the off with any real impact in the attacking areas which resulted in their 7th loss from 9 games.
I don’t think the team selection was right for this game with Hanson and Leon being our biggest attacking threats in the previous games. I don’t think it was right to have this game to try Magill and Nobbs on the wings which is neither of their preferred positions. Corsie has had a really poor season so far making many mistakes and losing the ball far too often which puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on the defence who are now starting to perform as a team again after reverting to the same 4 as last season.
In a week which saw Daly win another two individual awards with the PFA player’s Player of the Year and the Goal of the Month award for November for her strike against West Ham, fans were expecting a lot from her performance in this game but she seemed to be very isolated. She was dropping back a lot to get on the ball and struggled to get herself on the ball further up the pitch to be able to cause a threat. Things need to change fast for Villa or I can see things turning sour and Carla Ward potentially losing her job at the minute no one wants to see.
Villa’s next game is on Wednesday night in which Villa face Durham in the 3rd group game of the Conti Cup at Bescot Stadium with an 18:00 kick-off. I am expecting many changes to the starting 11 in this game with players such as Olivia McLoughlin, Laura Blindkilde-Brown and Adrian Leon featuring heavily after not playing any minutes in this game.