Aston Villa Women will host Liverpool FC Women in a crucial Women’s Super League clash on Sunday, with kick-off scheduled for 2pm BST at Keys Park.
Aston Villa are struggling near the bottom of the table, sitting 12th, while Liverpool occupy sixth place. The Reds will be looking to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester United, who claimed all three points with an early goal from Julia Zigiotti at Progress with Unity Stadium.
Gareth Taylor’s side therefore entered the October international break with seven points from their opening five WSL matches.
Ahead of the trip to Aston Villa, Taylor is hopeful that Lucy Parry, Mari Ward, Vivien Endemann and Mao Itamura will be available for selection.
Gareth Taylor said: “With the injuries that we have had with the likes of Ceri Holland, Vivien Endemann, Anna Josendal and now Aurélie Csillag being out, it makes our squad depth a bit thinner.
“I felt it certainly affected us at Manchester United, where I just felt we didn’t quite have enough to be able to win the game or even potentially to influence the game from the sidelines.
“After an international break you just hope your players all come back unscathed, fit and healthy. During this break we have seen it as a really good opportunity to get the players who didn’t go away into a really good place for this part of the season.
“We have been working hard on the training ground and we now hope to potentially get Lucy Parry, Mari Ward and Vivien back – plus Mao Itamura with improved fitness.
“That’s a positive to get these players back in to try to help us. We head to Aston Villa on Sunday and they have made a few changes – including the manager in Brian Sorensen, who has been in there for a while now.
“Although he wasn’t in charge of the team, he has been there a while behind the scenes so he would have seen a lot. We are looking forward to getting the girls back and then having a good few days of training before we head to Villa.”
Meanwhile, three of Liverpool Women’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixtures in November have been rescheduled. The updated fixture details are as follows (all times GMT): Liverpool vs Arsenal – Sunday, November 8 (12pm), Brighton & Hove Albion vs Liverpool – Saturday, November 14 (5.15pm) and Liverpool vs Chelsea – Saturday, November 21 (12.45pm). All three matches will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK.
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