For the first game of 2024, Aston Villa Women return to the Poundland Bescott Stadium once again this season face Everton but this time in the FA Cup 4th round. The ladies had a lot of success in this competition last season making it to the semi-finals narrowly losing out to holders Chelsea. After already losing to Everton this season Villa were hoping to turn it around this time round and get themselves in the hat for the next round.
As with all cup games this season, Anna Leat started between the sticks with number 1 Daphne Van Domselaar on the bench to start the game. This was a relatively unchanged lineup compared to recent cup matches with the reliable front 3 of Rachel Daly, Kirsty Hanson and Adriana Leon all starting. Carla Ward also handed starts to last season’s successful midfield trio of Jordan Nobbs, Lucy Staniforth and Kenza Dali.
With both Dan Turner and Lucy Parker injured, fans were left guessing how the defence would line up. Sarah Mayling continued in her right-back role and was joined by Anna Patten and Captain Rachel Corsie who were the centre-backs. Ward completed her backline by handing a debut to new signing Noelle Maritz.
The centre-backs worried me as I don’t like Corsie playing in that position, I feel that she has better games when playing in a holding midfield position. So it was interesting to see how this game played out.
Report: Aston Villa Women 0-3 Everton Women
The hosts dominated the possession in the first half and had a few chances to score with Dali and Daly having their fair share of opportunities. All chances seemed to be either an easy save for the Toffees goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan or off target. As the game progressed, Villa struggled to find the target and it encouraged the visitors but the first half ended goalless.
Everton came out in the second half fighting with a point to prove. They were stronger in the tackle and seemed to go unpunished for the reckless ones. The game became more aggressive while fans began to become increasingly frustrated.
Everton struck first in the 58th minute with Karoline Olesen hitting the underside of the bar before the ball bounced into the net over the head of Leat. This was the start of Villa’s collapse. The Toffees grew in stature and began to dominate the game. Everton were stronger in every challenge with the hosts often coming off second best.
Everton doubled their lead on the 80th minute when Mayling was dispossessed in the box before clearing the ball by Katja Snoeijs who slotted home the second with 10 minutes to go.
The visitors were then harshly awarded a penalty in the 87th minute when Patten pulled back the Everton attacker which seemed to happen outside of the box with the Everton player falling inside the box. This frustrated fans more as the player seemed to start going down before any contact was made and should have been a free kick at most. Snoeijs took the penalty and got her second of the match with the game won for Everton at this point.
Villa didn’t get much more time on the ball after this and had to suffer a disappointing start to the new year, and an early exit from this season’s FA Cup. Everton were deserved winners as they outplayed Villa throughout the game and won every battle in the midfield positions. I think Dali had a poor game by her standards and it left too much for the front three to try and push forward which caused them to tire quite early on this game. I think Corsie was also very shaky at centre-back, holding onto the ball too long and playing too many risky passes across the back line which allowed the visitors to have a high press for the majority of the game. I think we missed the calmness of Turner at the back and the force of Parker in the middle of the pitch in this game.
Our best player in this match was new signing Maritz who had a strong game down the left side. Not much got past her and she provided support to Hanson further up the pitch with the 2 of them linking up well throughout. Daly was kept quiet throughout the game being thrown off the ball every time she was on it with unnecessary force. We can only hope that a better performance is shown in the next game with a better outcome.
The ladies face Leicester away in the return to the WSL on Friday night.
