In the return of the WSL after the midweek cup fixtures. Villa travelled to Manchester to face Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village. In the reverse fixture on the first game of the season, the ladies were unlucky to lose to United at Villa Park with the visitors scoring an injury-time winner to beat the 10 players of Villa after Kirsty Hanson got sent off for a late challenge. With Villa winning their last 2 league games and Man United losing their previous 2 it was all to play for in this game and looked to be an exciting fixture.
Carla Ward again opted to make changes to the team to face last season’s runners-up. With number 1 Daphne Van Domselaar returning in goal, and Noelle Maritz returning to start at left-back. Ward also awarded a league start to Alisha Lehmann after her positive display in the cup replacing Hanson who started the game on the bench. Rachel Daly and Adriana Leon also returned to the starting 11.
Villa started the game strong being on the attack from the whistle but it didn’t take long for United to get a hold of the game. Some poor defending and ball playing saw United defender Hannah Blundell win the ball back high up the pitch before playing in the in-form Nikita Parris who slotted home in the 7th minute making it 1-0 to the hosts with their first chance of the game. Villa struggled to get back into the game and was getting increasingly frustrated with the aggressive play style of United.
Lehmann was given a final warning just 17 minutes into the game after a late challenge on Man United defender Jayde Riviere after she felt she should have been awarded a free kick for the challenge before. Just 30 seconds later she received the first booking of the game for a late reckless challenge on the same player deep into their half.
The home team were attacking more but not creating any clear chances or anything to trouble DVD, Villa had a few chances of their own but again none troubling Mary Earps. United increased their advantage in the 33rd minute after once again poor defending by Villa saw Mayling only clear the ball as far as Parris who once again slotted past DVD to make it 2-0 to the hosts. This made it increasingly difficult for Villa to get anything from this game. DVD made a few good saves in the remainder of the first half and the Villa defence stood strong not allowing the hosts many more chances going in at half time 2-0 down.
Changes were made at half-time with Lehmann coming off for Hanson. Lehmann didn’t have any impact in this game and was outpaced every time by Rivere. At the start of the second half, United had another chance that led to nothing before Villa got a foothold in the game and started dominating the possession and creating more chances. Most chances come from Hanson on the left-hand side. At the hour mark Villa were awarded a penalty when Daly was thrown to the ground during a Villa corner.
Daly stepped up to take the penalty and calmly slotted home her sixth goal of the season. This goal was coming with how Villa were playing and put the visitors back in the game. After this goal, Villa were more confident with their play and created more chances with Earps called into action on multiple occasions. This led to Marc Skinner making changes of his own to try and seal the victory for the home team. He opted to make attacking changes by bringing off Parris and Lucia Garcia for Leah Galton and Rachel Williams who is known to score a late winner for United in many games.
Villa made another change in the 78th minute to try and force a winner bringing off the tiring Leon for fresh legs in Salmon who fans were hoping could make a difference after being the star player midweek. However, after creating many chances, it came to nothing in the end as Earps and the United defence stood strong and kept Villa out. After the extended period of injury time, the final whistle went, ending a disappointing afternoon for Villa.
We were unlucky not to get at least a point in this game after dominating in the second half, however we just weren’t good enough in the first half which ultimately cost us anything in this game. This game also showed how vital Hanson is to the Villa attack as without her we seemed very sluggish going forward on the left-hand side and struggled to create anything.
This was also the first time Villa have scored against Man United in the league away from home. They are one of the two teams in the league that Villa have never gained a point against, so this was always going to be a tough game as United don’t tend to drop too many points at home. If Villa continue to play how they ended this game going forward no doubt wins will come for the girls. After the weekend’s fixtures, Villa dropped one place into 8th only 1 point behind 7th.
With the transfer window closing on Wednesday hopefully, we bring in some more players to further strengthen the team and positions where we are weaker. Also hopefully we don’t see any player’s outgoing as with injury the squad is already quite light with more youth players being included in the match day squad to fill the places on the bench.
The next game sees the ladies return to Bescott for the first home league game of the year. They will face bottom-of-the-league Bristol City in what is becoming a must-win game to keep us out of a relegation battle.
