Aston Villa Women Experts: History made as FA Cup semi-final reached
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…
Over the last decade in the Women’s FA Cup, there have only been three teams who have lifted the trophy.
Arsenal, Chelsea and Villa’s opponents in this match, Manchester City. As Villa have never made it to the semi-final of this competition, it was all to play for at the Poundland Bescott Stadium.
Carla Ward made a couple of changes to her team for this one, with Arsenal loanee Anna Patten and Laura Blinkilde Brown joining the starting lineup. As the whistle blew, last year’s tournament finalists were straight on the attack, testing Villa’s defence immediately.
Manchester City’s Chloe Kelly made some fantastic runs down the wing but couldn’t find Bunny Shaw in the box (which was to be a constant theme throughout this match) even though alarm bells were ringing for the home side, the Villans weren’t rattled and held their ground well.
In the eighth minute, Villa got themselves into a great position and Rachel Daly was denied the opening goal with the best chance of the game so far. City fought back immediately and created a fantastic chance for the opening goal and it would have sailed straight into the back of the net if it wasn’t for some great defending by Danielle Turner.
Proving they weren’t slowing down either, Villa’s next chance came from a spectacular looping ball from Daly (becoming something of her trademark) in the 18th minute; Ellie Roebuck managed to block the shot, but it went out for a Villa corner.
We’ve previously talked about Villa needing to see more results during set pieces and this was the result we wanted. Step forward skipper Rachel Corsie, who not only managed to lose her marker but connect perfectly with the ball to put it straight past Roebuck into the net. Could this be the start of some Aston Villa magic?
This was proving to be a tough match with chances coming for both sides.
Notably, the brilliant link-ups between Kenza Dali, Nobbs and Staniforth in that midfield area, who are the key to Villa’s success this season, was proven once again as Dali fed a beautiful ball into Nobbs but the flag was raised for offside.
Fortunately, this wasn’t to be the only time Nobbs had a chance in front of goal and her determination was needed as City weren’t letting up. The blues’ attacks were becoming more purposeful and Hampton proved she is worth her England recognition with some fantastic fingertip saves, especially against powerful headers from fellow international teammate Lauren Hemp.
Even though Villa were showing their dominant side during this match, a City goal felt like it was coming and in the 37th minute, Deyna Castellanos saw her shot ripple the net after a sudden burst of energy from the away side and some fantastic build-up play. The visitors finally demonstrated their winning ways on the pitch.
City were now invigorated and they wanted to find a second goal to put this game to bed.
Their only problem was, so did Villa.
As the second half began, both teams came out fighting and there were desperate chances at both ends to find that second goal.
As the frustration increased, the game started to become more physical and the Villans took quite a few knocks on the pitch. After Sarah Mayling took a more serious blow, she was replaced by Maz Pacheco in the 60th minute.
In the 77th minute, Daly collided with Roebuck and took some time to get back to her feet. In a very physical game, it shows that both teams were fuelled by such passion, taking knocks, wanting to win the ball and secure their place in the semi-final.
Out of the two sides, Villa looked more visibly tired as a result of such a relentless game.
Just as we were thinking there hadn’t been many substitutions made (possibly due to both managers anticipating going to extra time) Alisha Lehmann came on to replace Laura Blinkilde Brown, who sadly hadn’t made much of an impact on the pitch as usual, the Swiss flyer, on the other hand, got stuck straight in, hungry for more goals.
At the end of the 90, it was still 1-1 and the next 30 minutes would be a very close, make-or-break situation.
The blues came out with a new lease of life with a very dangerous chance from Shaw in the early moments, clearly spurred on by the roar of the City fans. Seven minutes later and the one and only Daly does what she does best. Scores.
It was a brilliant cross from Staniforth to connect with Anna Patten, whose header went straight to Roebuck. However, the keeper spilled it right in front of her fellow England teammate who put it straight in the back of the net. It was the Villa fans’ turn to be in full voice now as a new surge of energy seemed to crackle through the claret and blues.
Finally, it was the second part of extra time and we saw more substitutions. Coombs coming on for City, Evie Rabjohn coming on for Nobbs, after suffering from a cramp, and Freya Gregory coming on for Kirsty Hanson, who had a brilliant game too.
With the minutes ticking down, the roar of the Villa fans was noticeably louder, especially from the first organised singing section at Bescott (hopefully a staple of our home stadium from now on) willing their team on to make history, and that’s exactly what they did.
As the final whistle blew, the relief and jubilation on the faces of every single Villa player, fan and member of staff was an awesome site to behold.
Even Ward herself came onto the pitch, punching the air and shouting louder than we’ve ever seen her. That passion she displayed is so evident in the way her squad play every single week and we are so proud to be part of her pride.
Aston Villa Women made history in this match to reach the Women’s FA Cup Semi-Finals for the first time and will meet previous winners Chelsea at home on Sunday 16th April.
In other Aston Villa news, Danny Mills was completely wrong about a ‘terrible’ Villa player after his recent transformation under Unai Emery.