Manchester United Women fell to a penalty shootout defeat against Aston Villa in their first fixture of this season's League Cup.
Marc Skinner decided to make plenty of changes to his side for the trip to the West Midlands to face the newly-promoted WSL side. Nine fresh faces were named in the starting line-up and one of those new faces popped up with the opener.
Summer signing Nikita Parris gave Skinner's side the lead in the 16th minute with an effort from outside the box. Despite holding the lead going into half-time, United were pegged back with less than 20 minutes remaining as Rachel Daly headed Villa level from a Kenza Dali free-kick.
ALSO READ: Skinner lauds summer signing
The scores would remain level for the remainder of normal time, with the Reds securing a point from their trip to Villa. However, in this competition teams have the opportunity to bag themselves a bonus point should they win the penalty shootout.
Villa missed three penalties in the shootout but United were equally wasteful, with Mayumi Pacheco eventually scoring the winning penalty past Sophie Baggaley to secure the extra point. Post-match, Skinner lamented his side's failure to win the game.
"Today was a winnable game for us," he explained. "We didn’t rotate for the sake of it. We rotated international players into our team.
"After two games, coming into the third game, it’s a good moment to give them an opportunity. We’ve had golden opportunities and we have to take them."
United Women return to WSL action on Sunday, October 16 when they host Brighton and Hove Albion.
READ NEXT:
