Aston Villa Women Experts: Eight unbeaten after routine 5-0 victory v Leicester City
We’re delighted to welcome author Freya Taylor and former academy player Lyndsey Bissell as our exclusive Aston Villa Women experts. Each week they’ll be collaborating to give their views on the biggest talking points at the WSL club…
With seven games remaining in the season, this was a big one for Leicester to try and survive in the Women’s Super League. A decent crowd of 6,489 turned out to Villa Park to celebrate ‘Women’s Football Weekend’ and Aston Villa did not disappoint.
Naming quite a defensive lineup, the Foxes showed their respect for Villa’s attacking prowess from the off, and judging by their recent form, Leicester would need a strong defence to keep Villa out.
There were a couple of changes to Carla Ward’s starting lineup due to injuries that took place in last week’s FA Cup clash against Manchester City. Noticeably missing from the lineup are skipper Rachel Corsie, who suffered a knee injury and is due to undergo minor surgery soon, and Sarah Mayling, who hobbled off the pitch last week, but as of yet, there’s no injury update for her. This means that Dan Turner wore the captain’s armband again for this match.
Back in the starting lineup were Alisha Lehmann and Maz Pacheco and after a fantastic stint as a substitute last week, Evie Rabjohn also gets her first senior start. It’s great to see so many youth players coming through the system who are able to keep up with the first team. Some of whom we hope to see more of next season.
Villa, clearly energised by playing once again at Villa Park, saw an early chance for Rachel Daly after a sloppy ball by Leicester. It was a great run from Kirsty Hanson to find Daly in the box. However, it hit the side netting to Daly’s dismay. Villa’s intention was clear, they were here to win.
However, Leicester responded well to Villa’s attacks and the home side’s defence was tested throughout the match. The Foxes were able to make the most of a really good corner to get the flick on by Howard, who was left unmarked in the back of the area. This was the first of many good chances for Leicester who were able to show their potential against such a strong side.
Unfortunately, Villa lost their form for a moment and were very sloppy in front of the goal and unable to clear the ball. Leicester took their chance and Tierney scored! But fortunately for Villa, the goal was quickly disallowed. It wasn’t initially clear why this was ruled out to the players but the offside flag was raised before the goal occurred.
This lucky escape seemed to invigorate Villa and they were pressing hard once again. Showing Ward’s comments pre-match were coming true; it was turning out to be a very lively match indeed. Moments later, some great positioning from Villa allowed French international Kenza Dali to smash the ball into the bottom corner and open her account for the evening. Would this settle Villa’s nerves slightly and how would Leicester respond?
After the highs of the City game last week, it was questioned how well Villa would have recovered mentally and physically for today’s game. Would there be an obvious difference in quality? Leicester would certainly be hoping so. Although it was possible to see some mistakes on Villa’s end and certainly we could have been more clinical on goal, they were still able to bring quality onto the pitch.
To give credit to the Foxes, they were playing some really good football throughout and certainly didn’t let Villa breathe for the majority of the match. They were able to win the ball back and deliver some great crosses into the box, but just couldn’t make anything of their chances. In fact, if you look at the overall stats of the game, Leicester had more possession, more shots and won more tackles than Villa. This shows Leicester have a lot of potential and quality, they’re just being outplayed by the bigger teams in the league.
Elsewhere on the pitch, Jordan Nobbs is proving to be such a fantastic addition as an attacking midfielder and we’re so proud she’s been announced in the England squad for the upcoming fixtures against Brazil and Australia next month. Leicester’s defence also held up at times, particularly from Wheelan to stop a second Villa goal so soon after the first.
With Leicester on the attack, Evie Rabjohn had a chance to show her quality and managed to win the ball back for Villa, leading to what could have been a good chance on goal for Lehmann, however, the whistle is blown for handball, despite protests the ball hit her side.
Impressively, Leicester were having some real moments of dominance in this game. They were not holding back and challenging Villa to hopefully find themselves on the score sheet too. Hannah Hampton as always making some very good saves to keep Leicester out and we’re so happy to see her back in the Lionesses lineup, along with Nobbs and Daly.
With a swift break away from Hampton, her brilliant distribution yet again found her teammates to allow Hanson to provide a lovely ball into the box for Lehmann who made it 2-0. Her euphoric celebration to the crowd (shown in the video clip below) shows just how much it meant to have her first goal for a while and how proud she is to be part of the team. In her post-match interview, Lehmann said, “I’m really happy, I love Villa Park…” and this truly shows in every performance. What a game for Hanson too, who now has eight assists this season to take her second in the overall assists table, only one behind Chelsea’s Guru Reiten.
With the game hotting up, after some beautiful football between Dali and Daly in the final third, the former sent a shot just wide to be denied a three-goal lead. However, our third England international wasn’t to be deterred, as she found the back of the net, punishing a mistake from Leicester at the back. Showing why Sarina has chosen Daly as a forward for the upcoming internationals.
As the whistle blew for half time, the scoreboard showing 3-0 didn’t really reflect the quality Leicester have shown so far, so we were eager to see how they come out after the break. Do they keep attacking and taking chances? Or do they hang back and try and stop any more Villa goals?
Once the clock started again, we were happy to see Leicester back out fighting, hoping to get themselves onto the score sheet. Attacking hard and hoping they can finally make something out of their chances.
Moments later, the pass of the game came to fruition from Swiss international Lehmann. Known for making fantastic runs down the wings, her beautiful pass from the right to Daly waiting in the box, allowed her to hammer it home for her second of the match and fourth of the game in the 55th minute. Does this put Daly back in the running for the golden boot against Bunny Shaw? As she now stands only two goals behind the Manchester City striker.
Four goals up and still Villa keep pushing for more. This persistence then saw Kenza Dali colliding with the Leicester goalkeeper determined to put the ball into the back of the net for the fifth time. Of course there was no malicious intent but studs were up in the challenge and if VAR was present it could have possibly been a card. As it stands, nothing was given but Leitzig looked like she took a knock to the arm/shoulder; fortunately, she was able to carry on for the rest of the match. The refereeing as a whole was of a good standard, however we’re probably the first to question the lack of cards throughout the game. Especially when there were some heavy tackles on both sides.
With such a substantial lead, Ward made a double substitution in the 60th minute. Laura Blinkilde Brown, who started the game last week, and Freya Gregory to come on for Hanson and Lucy Staniforth to bring some fresh legs into the game. A good thing to note is the quality of our substitutes at this point in the season, compared to our bench in September. To try and combat the goal deficit, Leicester made a quadruple change at the 70th minute and this really was a game-changer. As they changed their tactics, this was Villa’s chance to completely dominate.
However, the Foxes wouldn’t get their wish, as a ball threaded through beautifully from Daly to find Pacheco who was waiting on the outside of the box. She produced a lovely pass to find Lehmann, who put the ball into the net yet again to make it her second of the match in the 71st minute.
This skill and dominance Villa are showing has grown throughout the second half of the season as they’ve evolved together as a squad and we can only imagine and hope where this team will finish next season if they keep on this trajectory.
As the game drew to a close, both teams were creating chances right up until the final moments but Villa just seemed to be the stronger side. At the end of the 90, Alice Keitley was able to make her senior debut for the last couple of moments as Leicester continued to fight, but as that whistle eventually sounded, it was a clean sheet and 5 brilliant goals for Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Asked to reflect on the match Ward ended it perfectly by saying, they had “5 academy products who finished the game on the pitch… it was a professional performance… five goals, a clean sheet and a lot to go away happy about tonight.” It was a testament to the team and their phenomenal attitude that they didn’t for one minute think this game was going to be easy just because Leicester are at the bottom of the league. They played their strongest game, fighting for those three points.
After losing, Leicester sit at the bottom of the WSL table, two points behind Brighton who drew 2-2 with other relegation survivors Reading (another two-point difference there too). It’s all to play for in these last seven games of the season. So watch this space!
In other Aston Villa news, Danny Mills was completely wrong about a ‘terrible’ Villa player after his recent transformation under Unai Emery.