England forward Rachel Daly and Alisha Lehmann both struck twice as clinical Aston Villa put the Women’s Super League’s bottom side Leicester to the sword at Villa Park.
In front of a lively crowd of 6,489 – just shy of Villa’s record attendance for a women’s game – Daly took her tally for the season to 13 WSL goals, just two behind the league’s top scorer, Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw.
Kenza Dali found the bottom corner from 20 yards to put Villa ahead and Lehmann produced a controlled first-time finish from Kirsty Hanson’s low cross to double the lead.
Daly then continued her bid for the WSL’s Golden Boot as she robbed Sophie Howard to roll home Villa’s third and, after the interval, steered Lehmann’s inviting low centre beyond Janina Leitzig.
She then turned provider for Villa’s fifth with a clever reverse pass that freed Maz Pacheco to cross for Lehmann to bundle home her second as the fifth-placed hosts registered a fourth straight WSL win.
The margin of defeat was harsh on Leicester but the WSL’s lowest scorers were made to pay for a wasteful first half in which they spurned several chances, with the loss leaving them two points from safety.
Villa’s superb season shows no signs of slowing
While Villa fell just a few hundred short of a record crowd on the terraces on Women’s Football Weekend, they certainly did not fall short on the pitch.
Victory virtually assured a top-half finish in what is proving to be the most successful season in the club’s history – never before have they recorded four consecutive top-flight wins.
Indeed, this was a sixth straight victory in all competitions, albeit a couple have come via extra time or penalties, with Villa also having an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea to look forward to.
Daly – already Villa’s highest scorer in a single season – will have other honours on her mind, with six games remaining to overhaul the WSL’s leading scorer Shaw. In this form, her chances should not be discounted.
She also provided a third assist of the season, for Dali’s opener, and nearly added a fourth late on, crossing for teenager Georgia Mullett who almost capped a perfect day for the hosts, only for Leitzig to tip aside her header.
Dali and Lehmann were rewarded with standing ovations by the boisterous home support as they came off late on and, by the end, there were almost as many goals as claret and blue foam fingers in the crowd.
You never have any luck when you are down the bottom, so the cliche goes, and Leicester had plenty of reason to believe it after five minutes at Villa Park.
Josie Green stood up a fine cross to the far post and, although Sam Tierney’s volley was well struck, Villa’s England keeper Hannah Hampton produced a superb reactive save to keep it out.
Then, as a scramble ensued, Tierney came back from an offside position to touch the ball before Aileen Whelan lashed it into the roof of the net.
A minute later, Villa were ahead and even then Leicester could have levelled as a loose ball dropped to Hannah Cain, whose vicious strike looked destined for the net until it struck Dali flush in the back.
When Ashleigh Plumptre fired straight at Hampton from 15 yards with Leicester 2-0 down, the visitors would have feared the worst and so it proved as they failed to score for the 11th time in 16 WSL matches this season.
The Foxes staged a near-miraculous escape from relegation last season but, after netting just seven times in 16 matches, their fate will likely depend on huge home games against eighth-placed Liverpool and relegation rivals Reading in April.
Source – BBC Sport
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