Aston Villa Ladies v Man City Women match preview

Man City Women will play Gemma Davies’s Aston Villa Ladies in their last Continental Cup group game of the year.

Aston Villa were originally formed as Solihull FC in 1973 and were contacted by the men’s club in 1989 when they asked for help on forming a women’s team. The team reached the final of the League Cup in 1995, in 1996 officially became recognised as Aston Villa Ladies after agreeing to change their name and in 1998, the first team won promotion to the FA WPL Northern Division.

The club they share the name of took full responsibility of the club in 2007 and have seen the side win promotion from the WPL Northern Division in the 2010-11 season. During 2011-12, the team recorded their highest ever finish in the National Division; finishing third.

Gemma Davies side have competed in the WSL 2, now the FA Women’s Championship, since it’s formation, finishing fourth in 2014 and the Spring Series; their highest finish in the league.

Davies has been in charge since June of this year and her team has recorded, four wins, three draws and eight losses with arguably their biggest win coming over Sheffield United Women in the league, beating them 5-1 last weekend.

While the Villans may have lost talented youngsters Beth Merrick and Ebony Salmon to Sheffield and Manchester United respectively, the club had a good transfer window; bringing in five players. They also boast England U20 goalkeeper Sian Rodgers, U23 player Elisha N’Dow, promising Welsh U19 international Evie Gane and Dutch player Nadine Hanssen.

City played Aston Villa in the Conti Cup two years ago, beating them 8-0 and will be wanting to end 2018 with another win.

Their previous Cup fixture saw the welcome returns of Pauline Bremer and Lauren Hemp with Jess Park also returning to the starting eleven that saw her score her first senior goal while Janine Beckie netted four. The Blues squad is now fully fit apart from Megan Campbell, who is likely to return in the New Year and this fixture may be chance for Nick Cushing to put out a young team and replicate the squad he played against the Blades.

However it would be nice for City fans to see Fran Stenson make her senior debut in goal alongside the likes of Park, Hemp and Esme Morgan.

Kick off at Boldmere St Michael’s FC is at 19:30 pm on Thursday 13^th December, with tickets available on the night. It is also advised that people travelling arrive early as parking at the ground and the infant school across the road is limited.