Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward admitted that she was delighted to see her side compete with Chelsea for 90 minutes despite going down to a 1-0 defeat at The Banks’s Stadium this afternoon.
Jessie Fleming netted the only goal of the game midway through the first half as Chelsea were made to work extremely hard for the three points by a determined Villa outfit.
Villa restricted Chelsea to few clear-cut chances throughout the match while head coach Ward was pleased to see her side compete with the Barclays FA Women’s Super League champions from the first whistle until the last.
“It wasn’t a 45-minute game, it wasn’t a 60-minute game, I thought we were sensational for 90 minutes,” Ward told FAWSL Full-Time after the final whistle in Walsall. “We have posed them problems throughout and we have set up in a way which certainly asked questions of them.
“The girls were sensational today and the only disappointment is that we have come away with no points.”
After keeping themselves in the game, Villa began to become a little more adventurous in the final 10 minutes of the match and they caused Chelsea problems from a number of set plays. Ward said that it felt like a goal was coming but her side just ran out of time.
She said “We needed one more corner where we were going to throw Hannah (Hampton) up because she’s very good in the air.
“You could see that last 10 minutes was penned into their half which is unusual, we are usually the ones asking for one added minute but today, I wanted five added minutes. If we had got a few more minutes might we have got a goal? I think you never know, that’s football.
“We’ve been up against world-class opposition today and we’ve completed and that’s the biggest thing that you take from it.”
Aston Villa are back in action next Sunday when they travel to St Andrew’s for a Second City derby against Birmingham City.