I wish our first instinct was to play forwards rather than backwards. We waste so many opportunities to progress the play, simply because the player receiving the ball has already decided to turn back by the time the ball arrives.
Villa were rubbish. They looked like a team that had lost 0-7 to Man City and 0-4 to both Arsenal and Chelsea in 2021. I don't think they had any shots in the whole match.
We had a few moments of quality. Lucy Staniforth's free-kick for Jess Sigsworth's super header. Hayley Ladd's cross for an easier header for Katie Zelem. Kirsty Hanson scored with a deflected shot but otherwise was awful, wasting three openings in the first few mins of the 2nd half with poor crosses and through-balls. Martha Harris was poor in the first half but better in the 2nd. Ona Batlle had one of her less impressive matches as did Jackie Groenen.
Lucy Staniforth had several good moments as well as a few errors; hers was perhaps the most encouraging performance. Jess Sigsworth started slowly but scored a super header and performed much better from then on. Ella Toone created a good chance that Sigsworth fired straight at the keeper in the first half, while Sigsworth presented Toone with a chance in the 2nd that she guided wide.
The most impressive aspect of our play was winning the ball back, either through interceptions or tackles, soon after we'd lost it. We pressed well in the first half, resulting in the poor Villa pass that Kirsty Hanson intercepted before scoring.
We need to do a huge amount of work on the weight of our through-balls and passes in the final third.