Manchester City stretched their unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions after a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa at the Academy Stadium on Saturday, but manager Gareth Taylor was not impressed with the performance.
City took the lead when Khadija Shaw put in a perfectly-weighted ball through to teammate Denya Castellanos to convert but the visitors replied five minutes later when Kirsty Hanson re-directed a bouncing ball from Rachel Daly’s cross into the back of the net, sending both sides back into a stalemate ahead of the break.
The home side seemed to lose their spark after 20 minutes with the defence struggling to play out from the back due to the lack of movement and forward options which left them taking too many touches in the defensive third, and they were eventually punished.
The game slowed significantly after the break but picked up again when efforts from Shaw Chloe Kelly, Laura Coombs and substitute Hayley Raso were all blocked.
City Manager Gareth Taylor said: “Not one of our best performances I'll be honest, I think we looked a bit flat from the start I thought even before we scored a really good goal and then obviously the concentration span was poor today, for the goal we conceded.
“We just couldn’t quite get the symmetry right today, or get the combination play right. They had some attempts, probably a little too many for our liking but the important thing is to not lose the game.
“A point is not what we wanted, we wanted three points. But I think on today's performance, it’s a point we appreciate.”
Aston Villa looked potent when imposing their high press and counterattacks with Daly exerting tremendous effort to chase down the Sky Blue backline in an attempt to pressure them into mistakes.
Taylor continued: “Fundamental football is you’ve got to turn up and you’ve got to battle and you’ve got to compete and I just didn't feel like we did. We didn't do the basics well enough today.”
Villa manager Carla Ward agreed and thought her team deserved all three points: “We deserved to win the game honestly, I think we’re probably disappointed not to win the game. I think as a whole team we’ve given a good performance from start to finish. In the first half, we were not particularly happy with the opening 15-20 minutes but after that and the second half in particular I think we were the better team.”
Villa progressed from seventh to fifth in the Women's Super League with 16 points and Manchester City sit comfortably in fourth, seven points ahead of the visitors but two behind third-place Arsenal and Manchester United in second. Chelsea remains leaders with 28 points having played one game more in an attempt to retain their title.
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