With no points after 3 games this was looking to be a must-win game for Aston Villa Women, but after their start to the new season, Tottenham were not to be pushovers.
Following last week’s performance against Arsenal, I was expecting a very similar if not the same starting 11 to start this one as well. When the lineup was announced everyone was surprised to see the amount of changes made to the starting line-up. Carla Ward had different ideas as Maz Pacheco, Sarah Mayling and Simone Magill dropped to the bench with Jordan Nobbs, Adriana Leon and Ebony Salmon replacing them. Danielle Turner moved to left-back and Lucy Parker on the right.
The home side got off to a bright start when Leon was taken out in the box winning her side a penalty inside 5 minutes. As expected, Rachel Daley stepped up scoring her second goal of the campaign.
Both sides struggled to make any real impact until captain Rachel Corsie misplaced a pass just after the half-hour mark allowing Martha Thomas to chip Daphne van Domselaar from distance.
As Villa pushed on, hoping to restore their league it was the visitors who doubled their tally. Another miss-pass from the Villa back line allowed Jessica Naz to pick out Ashleigh Neville to score with the last kick of the opening half.
The first half showed the attacking threat that Leon provides for this Villa team however the Tottenham defence stood strong and seemed to outplay Villa in the middle of the pitch proving again the miss that the still-injured Kenza Dali proves to be.
It wasn’t until the 64th minute that Ward looked to the bench to make changes to a team that was struggling to make any real impact. Nobbs, Salmon and Leon were replaced by those who dropped to the bench before the game, Pacheco, Mayling and Magill.
A theme of the day, mistakes from Villa were the cause of Tottenham’s third when Thomas was able to score her second of the day and make it 1-3.
Despite Spur’s third, the changes allowed Villa to be more creative with them able to push higher up the field with substitutes Pacheco and Mayling becoming a threat to the visitors. Ward’s ladies just lacked that final product.
The downside to this was Tottenham had more space on the wings and it wasn’t long before Thomas completed her hat-trick with 18 minutes left on the clock.
Further changes were then made from the home side as Olivia McLoughlin replaced Lucy Staniforth.
It was a case of too little, too late from the Villa ladies as they began to dominate and despite a good effort from Tottenham’s backline, Villa managed to pull one back 5 minutes into added-on time.
Mayling’s corner was poorly defended by Tottenham and fell to the head of Parker who scored her first goal for Villa. With the game now at 2-4 and a further 6 minutes of added time remaining Villa continued to push forward and create chances but it ended in a disappointing afternoon at the Bescot Stadium.
After Villa’s poor start to the season, some sections of the support have started to question the lack of creativity and questioned why performances have dropped off from last season.
Personally, I think that this season so far shows how much Villa rely on certain players to create chances and score goals and there have been too many changes to the side.
The defence last season had a mid-level press with Mayling, Patten, Turner and Pacheco providing a successful back line. Now this has changed and they seem to be playing more passively and sitting back too much inviting too much pressure with the back line seeming to change every game so far, which isn’t allowing for the players to settle into their roles and get used to playing alongside each other again.
With performances like this, It’s hard to see where the next points are coming from, with the next game being Chelsea at home after the international break.
Villa has had a very difficult start to the season but it makes you question why after we performed well against Manchester United and Arsenal the team has been changed so much into the next game with a poor performance following.
Villa fans have things to look forward to though with Kirsty Hanson being back in the next game after her 3-game suspension and Ward confirming that Dali should be back in the squad also after her injury. So we hopefully will be able to see an improvement in performance and squad depth with all players being back and available for selection which will offer more competition for starting places within the team.
As we enter the international break Villa are still sitting in 11th place with no points so far and only the league newcomers Bristol City below us on goal difference. Fans are now crying for changes to happen and better performances to begin before the season starts falling away from us more.