Aston Villa claimed their first home win of the season in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Thursday night, comfortably triumphing 3-0 over Liverpool at Villa Park.
Rachel Daly’s first league goal of the season inside the opening minute – the fastest WSL goal of the campaign so far – gave the hosts an ideal start, before Kirsty Hanson put them in command before the break.
Daly then added her second and her side’s third 13 minutes from time to tie up victory for the Villans in their penultimate game of 2025. Natalia Arroyo’s side travel to league leaders Manchester City on Sunday (ko 11.55am) before pausing for the festive period.
Arroyo made two changes to the side which fell to defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend, with Lucy Parker returning from injury in place of the suspended Océane Deslandes and Maya Hijikata making her full debut in claret and blue as Ebony Salmon dropped to the bench.
And Villa made the perfect start to proceedings in B6, taking the lead with just 27 seconds on the clock. The hosts kicked off and immediately sought to cause danger with a long ball forward.
Liverpool goalkeeper Faye Kirby and defender Gemma Evans proved unable to clear the ball between them allowing Daly to profit from the mishap and turn home her first WSL goal of the season, stroking into the empty net from the edge of the area.
The Reds responded well to falling behind early on and saw a lot of the early possession as they looked to work their way into the game, but struggled to test Sabrina D’Angelo in the Villa goal.
Kirsty Hanson
Instead, it was the home side who continued to carve out openings as they looked to take the game away from their visitors. Daly almost had a second just after the quarter-hour mark, but couldn’t find the target when getting on the end of Hanson’s ball to the near post.
And, after Hijikata had gone close with an effort after another error from Kirby had presented her with the ball, Villa did make it two shortly before the half-hour mark.
An impressive counter attack saw Chasity Grant emerge with the ball down the right-hand side – having been found brilliantly by Daly – and square for Hanson in the centre, who made no mistake to poke the ball under Kirby and double Villa’s advantage with her fifth league goal of the campaign.
Villa looked for a third as the break approached, with Grant denied by Kirby from an acute angle, but the half-time whistle sounded with Arroyo’s side having established a comfortable two-goal lead.
Aston Villa Women
Salmon’s half-time introduction for the Villans added even more zip to their attacking play in transition, and they almost had a third within five minutes of the restart when a neat free-kick routine ended with Hijikata getting a shot away, but it cannoned back off the post.
Villa’s relentless press was causing issues for the visitors, as their pursuit for a third goal continued. And, 13 minutes from time, Daly doubled her tally for the evening to put the result beyond doubt.
Salmon’s long-range effort was beaten away well by Kirby after she had been fed by substitute Missy Bo Kearns. But the stopper could only parry into the path of Daly who had the simple task of tapping into the empty net to complete the scoring for Arroyo’s charges.
Lucy Staniforth
Daly’s second of the evening signified the first time Villa had netted thrice in a game since a 3-3 draw with Everton at the beginning of November, where a last-minute equaliser denied the Villans all three points.
But there would be no stopping the hosts from seeing out victory this time around. The night was complete when Lucy Staniforth made her long-awaited return from injury off the bench 10 minutes from time, coming on for her first appearance of the season.
And it was almost a fairytale return for Staniforth in stoppage time as her set-piece delivery deceived Kirby and looped onto the crossbar, but 3-0 it remained to ensure Villa were victorious at home in the league for the first time this season.