Durham and Aston Villa are into the quarter-finals of this season’s FA Women’s Continental League Cup after battling out a 1-1 draw at Maiden Castle this evening.
The two sides battled bravely in icy conditions in the North East but they could not be separated after 90 minutes, resulting in the pair participating in the lottery of a penalty shootout for the bonus point. Aston Villa ended the night on top of the group after winning the shootout 4-2.
Durham opened the scoring with the very first shot on target of the game when Emily Roberts’ cross from the right looped over Villa keeper Sian Rogers into the net.
Mollie Lambert then tested Rogers from 18 yards before home keeper Megan Borthwick got her body behind Emma Follis’ effort from distance at the other end.
Ellie Christon drilled a low shot wide when in a great position to score before some nice link-up play between Bridget Galloway and Beth Hepple resulted in the latter curling the ball against Rogers’ far post.
Hepple and Molly Sharpe then fired efforts narrowly over the Villa goal before Durham keeper Borthwick was again on top form to tip Nadine Hanssen’s deflected shot over the bar as The Wildcats maintained their advantage going into the interval.
Aston Villa had a good chance early in the second half but Diana Silva stuck her shot straight at Hepple who was stood on the Durham goal-line. Gemma Davies’ side then had a golden opportunity to level matters when Caro Siems was tripped in the box but Borthwick saved Villa substitute Stine Larsen’s penalty kick at full stretch.
The visitors were to get their reward 15 minutes from time when Emma Follis curled a free-kick into Borthwick’s bottom right corner from 25 yards.
Durham went closest to finding the winning goal in 90 minutes but Sharpe saw two efforts blocked as the scoreline ended 1-1 after normal time.
The two sides then contested a penalty shootout for a bonus point with Aston Villa winning 4-2 on penalty kicks to take top spot in the group.
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