Le Tissier goal secures narrow Villa victory for Albion women
Maya Le Tissier grabbed the only goal of the game as Brighton & Hove Albion lifted themselves up to sixth in the FA Women’s Super League table with a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa.
Villa’s desperate run of form at home continues, however, as they have now lost 10 matches in a row on their own turf and they were again unable to make their chances count. Brighton had the ball in the net after eight minutes when Kayleigh Green headed in Megan Connolly’s free kick, but her joy was quickly stifled by the assistant’s offside flag.
But the deadlock was broken by the Seagulls in the 28th minute when Connolly’s corner from the right was steered in on the half-volley by centre-back Le Tissier.
Villa came close to equalising when Ramona Petzelberger teed the ball up for Sarah Mayling and the defender’s fierce strike from the corner of the box was beaten away by Megan Walsh.
The visitors then had a great chance to double their lead when Emma Kullberg burst through after charging down Jill Scott’s pass, only for Hannah Hampton to fingertip her effort wide.
The second half was a little cagier, with Ellie Brazil teeing up Lee Geum-min for a clear sight at goal in the 65th minute, but the South Korean blazed her first-time effort well over. Anna Patten then looped a free header from Alisha Lehmann’s corner over for Villa, with Brazil smashing a late chance over from Connolly’s cross not proving costly for Brighton, who held out for victory.
To follow the action and sign up for The FA Player’s
live Barclays FA Women’s Super League coverage visit womenscompetitions.thefa. com
Aston Villa manager Carla Ward: “Same old story, it’s a tale of two boxes.
“This time, it’s a first contact at a set-piece and it’s not good enough, we’ve got to defend it better. In the first half, we played into their hands and second half we were a lot better, but it’s the tale of the final third that is the story of our season.
“We played into their press and we had to get organised and make sure we could play over the press, but we didn’t do that until we adjusted at half-time.
“I don’t know what it is, we’ve been playing well at home all season, although today, in the first half we weren’t good enough.
“We’ve played well all season at home, I just can’t put my finger on it why we’re not getting results. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in the final third, that’s the story of our season.”
Brighton defender Maya Le Tissier: “It was a nice little half-volley! I wasn’t really expecting it, to be honest, but it just fell nice and I just slotted it in.
“I don’t really score many, so it was a bit of a surprise for me. I don’t really know what happened with the marking, I just found myself free, but Megan Connolly’s deliveries have been superb these last few weeks.
“We scored against Reading from a corner as well, so when the delivery is good, it helps us in the middle.”