“This is her first game, I’m a season ticket holder at Villa Park but I can’t get a seat near enough to bring her,” says Karl Henitt, who is at his first Aston Villa women’s game with his 10-year-old daughter Poppy, as well as his partner Diane.
A grinning Phoebe Garner is also at her first match and is “ridiculously excited” to see the team play Leicester, says her mum. She is in her kit ready to join up with a big group from Cottage Farm Under-10s, and it is her birthday. Everyone outside the ground says the same – if the team were here more regularly they would come more often.
This is the first time Villa’s women have played at Villa Park since 2016 and, while the 1,618 record crowd rattles around a bit inside the 42,785-seat stadium, the fans are vocal and significantly more numerous than the 350-ish that would be expected for a game of this nature at Boldmere.
Unfortunately a scoreless draw did little to excite the crowd and Villa’s manager, Gemma Davies, was frustrated with her side’s first-half efforts in particular. “It wasn’t our best game,” she said. “First half we were poor and we knew that. We asked for a response in the second half and I do think we got that. But it was too late.”
Villa started brightly, a Jodie Hutton shot flying inches over Demi Lambourne’s crossbar in the third minute. With 36 minutes played their right-back Asmita Ale clipped Leicester’s Sophie Domingo and was booked. The resulting free-kick was floated into the box and off a Villa head towards Domingo but her use of an arm to control the ball was spotted by the referee, Sarah Garratt.
Villa began the season with a chastening 12-0 home defeat by a Manchester United team making their Women’s Championship debut. And, though the first half of their season had more downs than ups, they had not lost in six before welcoming Leicester to Villa Park.
Leicester, having moved up from the National League, have proved the surprise package of the Championship. Here they absorbed second-half pressure and were not without opportunities. Domingo was brilliantly released through the middle before being pick-pocketed by Jade Richards as she attempted to shoot.
Leicester then appeared to have punished Villa’s profligacy when Domingo headed home from close range but the linesman’s flag flew up to the delight of home fans and the fury of Jonathan Morgan. “I think the goal we scored was perfectly acceptable,” the manager said.
“Apparently there was a push but when you’ve got five girls going for the same ball I don’t know how the referee can judge who pushed who. I think the occasion got the better of her, and the crowd, so she was more on the side of Villa from my personal opinion.”
Davies and Morgan were united on one thing, though – the decision to host the game at Villa Park. “It’s a great occasion for us, the opportunity for the girls to play at their home ground and home team is brilliant,” said Davies. “Hopefully as the game moves forward this will become the norm. We’re a long way off that but it should be the norm and hopefully will be. I think generally the game is moving towards that and it’s exciting.”
Morgan added: “The more we can do this the better for the women’s game and hopefully that will help drive participation and spectators.”
Birmingham dented Chelsea's title hopes with a 3-2 victory at Kingsmeadow in Marta Tejedor's first game in charge. England striker Ellen White scored a wonderful volleyed winner in the 92nd minute, on her return to action after a lengthy spell out with a back injury.
Vivianne Miedema broke the record for the most goals in a WSL season with her strike in the second minute as Arsenal saw off Reading 3-0. Kim Little and Katie McCabe scored in the final ten minutes to seal the win.
Manchester City stayed one point above the Gunners, having played a game more, with a 3-0 win at home to Brighton, while Bristol City came from behind to beat Yeovil 2-1.
