In the penultimate game of the WSL season, Aston Villa Women saw themselves travelling to Crawley to face Brighton at Broadfield Stadium. With a 13:00 kick-off on Saturday after a late change to game time to prevent a fixture clash with the men’s team.
News broke earlier this week that manager Carla Ward will be stepping down at the end of the season, surely the ladies will be looking to end the season strongly. Villa were looking to do the league double over Brighton.
In the last league game between these two sides, Villa came away 1-0 winners with Adriana Leon scoring the only goal in the match. Since then these two sides also faced in the quarter-finals of the Conti Cup which Villa came away victorious after winning on penalties to progress to the semi-finals. Fans were hoping for a performance like what we saw the last time Villa played the Seagulls.
Report: Aston Villa Women 1-0 Brighton Women
The line-up was pretty much as expected coming into this game, with Anna Leat starting in goal after returning from her one-game suspension with Sophia Poor dropping back onto the bench. The back 4 consisted of Dan Turner lining up alongside Anna Patten in the centre-back positions with captain Rachel Corsie starting on the bench after she also completed her one-game suspension, Sarah Mayling and Noelle Maritz in the fullback positions.
The midfield consists of the reliable Jordan Nobbs, Kenza Dali and Miri Taylor, and the front 3 consists of last weekend’s goalscorer Alisha Lehmann who was awarded a start with Kirsty Hanson on the wings and Rachel Daly who was named as captain for this match starting up front. Usual starters Maz Pacheco and Leon found themselves starting this game on the bench alongside the returning Lucy Parker, Simone Magill, Ebony Salmon, and Freya Gregory.
The game started as expected very end to end with neither team testing either goalkeeper and struggling to create any clear-cut chances. Daly, Dali, Hanson and Lehmann all had chances but were either straight at Melina Loeck in the Brighton net or wide of the post and not troubling the Brighton keeper in any way.
Villa started becoming sloppy in possession around the half-hour mark with Patten, Taylor and Daly seemingly unable to maintain the ball and giving it away cheaply inviting unnecessary pressure from Brighton, however, Leat was equal to every chance on target not allowing the hosts to capitalise. The best chance of the game came in the 35th minute when Hanson took a strike from around 25 yards out which seemed to be heading into the top of the net before it unfortunately cannoned off the bar. This was the best chance of the half with neither team able to create any clear-cut chances but the visitors ended the game strongly.
Villa continued strong at the start of the second half with the hosts becoming more aggressive in their challenges with Villa winning multiple free kicks in the first 10 minutes.
In the 55th minute, we saw the return of Parker after her ankle surgery had kept her out of action since December. She came on to replace Taylor who was still struggling from a recent challenge.
Brighton had their best chance of the game in the 61st minute when Lee Gueminn had a shot that seemed to be heading goal-bound, beating Leat before Turner cleared the ball off the line.
In the 64th minute, Villa finally got their breakthrough after piling on the pressure Parker won the ball back in the middle of the park before passing it to Maritz who played a long ball over the top to Daly on the edge of the box with 3 players surrounding her she managed to lay it off to Lehmann in space in the box who fired home her 2nd goal in as many games.
This happened to be her last touch with her being replaced by Leon straight after this goal. Leon allowed Villa to continue creating more chances with most of the play involving her for the remainder of the game with the visitors looking more likely to increase their lead.
In the 81st minute, Ward was forced into changing her centre-back pairing when Turner was forced off with an injury after a heavy challenge on her. She was replaced by Pacheco with Maritz now being moved into centre back for the remainder of the game. I feel like Villa controlled the game well at the end and didn’t allow Brighton to play the way they liked and continued to apply pressure and attack the Brighton goal. The game ended 0-1 to Villa and could have been more.
I think both Daly and Patten had really poor games by their standards giving the ball away too often during the game and not seeming like their bright selves throughout the game. This was proved when Patten was replaced for the first time this season in the 65th minute after previously playing every minute for Villa in the league this season. Lehmann in my opinion had a good game in the right-wing position with her performance being rewarded with a goal, as did Hanson, Mayling, Dali and Maritz. You couldn’t pick a stand-out performer in this game with most of the team performing better than they did last week.
The final game of the season could be an important one with Villa potentially having a say in the title. Villa will face title chasers Man City at Villa Park with the visitors needing a win to keep up the pressure on current holders Chelsea to be able to win their first title in 7 years and only their 2nd ever. The game will be on Saturday 18th May with a 15:00 kick-off.
