Manchester City have got off to a winning start in this season’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League but Gareth Taylor’s side were given a helping hand by Aston Villa in a 2-0 success at Villa Park this afternoon.
Top flight debutants Villa were incredibly sloppy at the back early on handing City a two-goal lead inside 22 minutes in B6.
City were almost ahead inside the opening 60 seconds at Villa Park but Sam Mewis headed wide after Georgia Stanway’s shot had been blocked.
Stanway didn’t have to wait long to open her goalscoring account for the new season. Some casual defending by Natalie Haigh let the England international nip in to easily bundle home the opener. Nine minutes later, history almost repeated itself when Haigh again gave the ball to Stanway but she couldn’t direct her shot on target.
The second goal did soon arrive and it was again brought by a Villa mistake. Goalkeeper Sian Rogers’ ball out to Marisa Ewers was short and Stanway again capitalised, scoring what was another very easy goal.
Villa were unlucky not to reduce the arrears just after the half-hour when Stine Larsen was adjudged to have scored from an offside position after Ellie Roebuck had blocked Ramona Petzelberger’s initial effort before Stanway wasted a great opportunity to complete her hat-trick when she blazed high and wide with Rogers beaten.
Diana Silva was arguably one of Villa’s most dangerous players in the first half and she had a great opportunity to score two minutes into the second period but she dragged her shot wide when being given time and space on the left side of the box.
There were good chances for both sides around the hour. First, Janine Beckie found herself one-on-one with Rogers but the Villa keeper came out on top before her opposite number did the same at the other end as a great opportunity for Emma Follis passed by. Stanway then took aim at the Villa goal but Rogers again clawed the ball away before pulling off a second impressive save to deny the same player moments later.
Manchester City substitute Ellen White almost added to City’s lead in the final quarter of the match but she was deemed to have found the far corner of the net from an offside position while Mewis saw a late effort deflected over as the scoreline remained 2-0.
Aston Villa will now look ahead to next weekend’s trip to Reading in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League while Manchester City will host Brighton & Hove Albion.