Goals from substitutes Faye Bryson and Ella Mastrantonio helped Bristol City complete another dramatic comeback to keep the relegation scrap at the bottom of the WSL razor thin.
The early kick off for this weekend of WSL football was another key clash at the bottom of the table between Aston Villa and Bristol City.
Both sides came into this game equal on points at the very bottom of the league, with Bristol occupying the only relegation spot by a margin of goal difference.
The game would be equally as tight to predict as both sides came into this fixture winless in their last four league games, but despite having a much worse goal difference, Bristol City actually have scored more goals than their opponents this season.
The consensus for this matchup being that if Aston Villa could improve their accuracy in front of goal, they would have the best chance to win but Bristol City have made a habit of catching teams on the break.
The story of the first half was Aston Villa looking to attack predominantly by crossing the ball, a tactic that would immediately bear fruit for the hosts as with only three minutes played, a cross was played into Bristol’s back post, where it was headed across goal by Shania Hayles.
The header forced a good save from Robins’ goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley, but the parried ball would fly into the body of Bristol centre-half Meaghan Sargeant, who couldn’t prevent herself from turning the ball into her own net to gift Aston Villa with a one-nil lead.
Bristol would struggle to gain a foothold in the tie for much of the first half as the Villains were doing an admirable job in isolating Bristol’s star player Ebony Salmon, keeping multiple defenders marking her and pressing Bristol deep into their own half to make it harder for the visitors to find Salmon on the counter.
Just after the half hour mark, Villa would double their lead from an incredibly well-worked corner routine as Mana Iwabuchi would play the ball towards the corner of the penalty area to Anita Asante, who laid the ball back to a more central midfield position to Elisha N’Dow.
N’Dow would fire forward a perfectly weighted cross towards the back of the box, where it was met by the head of Natalie Haigh, her effort looping over the top of Baggaley and nestling in the far side of the goal to take Villa to the break with a two-nil lead.
The hosts would explode out of the blocks for the second half as the ball would immediately be played in high to Hayles, who did well to control the ball with her head before letting it drop, then spinning away from her marker and firing an effort at goal.
Her shot would whistle just past the far post, denying her what would have been an exceptional goal.
Ten minutes later, Chloe Arthur found herself in space around twenty-five yards out and would unleash a long-range effort that beat the diving Sophie Baggaley but rattled off of the crossbar and behind for a goal kick.
Aston Villa clearly were looking to put this game beyond Bristol City as they continued to press, causing the visitors to get a bit careless in defence, with plenty of nervy moments and mistakes that had to be cleaned up with a scrappy clearance or a brave challenge by Baggaley.
The WSL’s bottom side would be given a lifeline with less than twenty minutes to play after some inspired substitutions by Matt Beard in the Bristol dugout.
A cross would come into the Aston Villa penalty area from the left wing but would be deflected and bounce up into the box, the ball would be met by substitute Faye Bryson who, with her first touch of the game, would execute a well-hit volley to beat Villa ‘keeper Lisa Weiss and find the top left corner to bring the Robins within striking distance.
Bristol City would fight back in the dying embers of the game, substitute Ella Mastrantonio bundling in a free kick in the fourth minute of added time to steal an invaluable point away from home and keep the Robins’ survival hopes alive.
That late goal denies Aston Villa what would have been their first win in seven WSL matches and might be a major knock to the Villains morale ahead of the vital Second City derby with bitter rivals Birmingham City on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, despite the positive result for Bristol, they are still left with plenty of work to do to avoid the drop.
They have the least number of games remaining amongst the sides fighting to avoid relegation and their remaining two games are against Champions League-chasing Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion, who have surprised and impressed many with their performances this season.
The Inbound Observer 