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Can the Aston Villa Women keep up their strong start to the season through the winter and into the early part of 2020?
Words: Regan Foy | @findfoy
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Gemma Davies’ Aston Villa Women side are now 35% into their 20 game season and are still yet to be beaten in the FA Women’s Championship despite some fierce competition that has seen the team occupying 2nd change several times.
Seven games into the season, the Boldmere St. Michaels outfit find themselves with a game in hand compared to second-placed London City Lionesses, as well as boasting a near-perfect record of six wins and one draw.
It is not like they have had an easy run in the earlier stages either, facing their three nearest competitors in Durham Women – who they drew against, – and London City Lionesses (away) and Sheffield United Women (home) who they have beaten.
Most recently, the Aston Villa Women have beaten bottom of the table Coventry United on ‘Women’s Football Weekend’ with a somewhat rotated side. A 3-2 scoreline tells a mixed story – but aids in the ladies further rooting themselves as firm favourites to make it into the Women’s Super League this season.
The game started in Villa’s favour with a handful of chances before they took the lead after ten minutes through a goal from Shania Hayes, before a mistake allowed Coventry to equalise shortly after.
Nadine Hanssen bagged her second of the season in the 25th minute, before an extended period of pressure saw a few chances go awry and a rocket-shot from Asmita Ale crash off the crossbar.
Just before half-time, Kerri Welsh lobbed the ball over the Coventry ‘keeper from over 20 yards out to give Villa the 3-1 lead.
After the half, Aston Villa Women hit the bar again, before Coventry United converted a long free-kick and then continued to put the pressure on until the final whistle.
Somewhat key, though, is the fact that the side wasn’t at the races for much of the game, but still walked away with the win. That is the sign of champions, to still grab three points with a poor performance.
It’ll be a tough ask, but the Aston Villa Women could potentially go a full season without losing during this campaign.
They’ve managed to come from behind, win when things weren’t going their way, and absolutely dominate so far this season across their span of games, which shows the resilience and desire of the side.
It’s by no means a goal for the side to remain invincible in the league this season – but promotion quite obviously is – and the desire to get promoted could just see the Aston Villa Women remain unbeaten in their other thirteen games.
