Match Pack: Sunderland

Aston Villa Women continue their Conti Cup campaign on Sunday as they travel to face Sunderland Ladies.

Having picked up just one point from their opening two group stage games, Carla Ward's side will need to take close to maximum points from Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers to progress.

This year's tournament, however, has offered players and staff alike an invaluable opportunity to assess where they are at as a group.

Particularly in our last outing against Sheffield United, Ward rang the changes and handed first-team debuts to as many as five players.

Despite all of that, the need of a positive result and performance is very much required following a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City in our most recent league encounter.

Villa defended compactly and resiliently in the first half but were undone by a flurry of City goals in the second period.

The return of Emily Gielnik was a bright spot in that reverse, and with an international camp under the belt of our no.9 she will be hoping to kickstart her Villa career for good.

Sunday's game is available to watch live and for free on the FA Player!

Villa's opponents this weekend come in the form of Women's Championship side Sunderland.

The Lady Black Cats are recently promoted having previously competed in National League North.

And in the early going, Sunderland have made a solid start to life in the second tier.

As things stand, Mel Reay's squad sit in eighth place and are just six points behind Crystal Palace in third.

While the northern side are winless in their last three outings, a draw against the aforementioned Palace in September as well as a narrow defeat to Durham proves they will be no pushovers come Sunday afternoon.

International roundup

Aston Villa Women are eight league games into the 2021/22 campaign and have plenty to be optimistic about thus far.

With 10 points on the board, Carla Ward's side appear ready to eclipse their points total from last season in the coming weeks.

They also find themselves just five points behind third-place Brighton & Hove Albion, a team which they defeated in September.

Signature victories over Leicester City and Birmingham City have also contributed to putting smiles on the faces of the Villa faithful as we approach the end of the calendar year.

And as we move into the final month of 2021, league matters have made way once more to the international window of fixtures.

In the final such window before March 2022, there were a host of Villans representing their countries over the past week or so.

Hannah Hampton

Our shotstopper has been a key figure throughout the opening stages of this season and has made spectacular saves look like ordinary ones on several occasions.

Hannah celebrated her 21st birthday just last week but is already regarded as one of the best 'keepers the WSL has to offer.

While she is still awaiting her first senior cap as a Lioness, the feeling amongst many is that appearance number one is not too far away.

Hampton joined up with the squad as they came away from the November break with two wins out of two in qualifying.

England defeated Austria 1-0 at the Stadium of Light before completely dismantling Latvia 20-0 at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Alisha Lehmann

Our no. 7 helped edge Switzerland closer to World Cup qualification during last week's international period.

While the 23-year-old is still waiting on her first strike in claret & blue, she continued her impressive form for the Swiss over recent breaks after finding the net twice back in September.

Two away trips are were in store this time around for Alisha and her fellow compatriots, with 2-1 and 7-0 successes over Italy and Lithuania bringing them closer to qualification.

Chloë Arthur

Our Scottish midfielder netted her first two goals for Scotland during September's break, perhaps a result of enjoying a prolonged run in the starting lineup at club level.

The 26-year-old was forced to withdraw during our WSL defeat to Manchester City but is thought not to have suffered anything significant as she joined up with the Scotland camp last week.

Scotland held Ukraine to a 1-1 draw at Hampden Park, with Chloë starting for the Tartan Army. However the second of their two games was much less satisfactory as they were beaten 8-0 by a dominant Spain side in Seville.

Emily Gielnik

After a stop-start beginning to life at Aston Villa, Emily Gielnik has her sights firmly set on the present and future.

The forward played just twice for the club before sustaining a broken toe in the win over Brighton in September.

Incidentally, our no. 9 suffered the injury before going on to bag the winner against the Seagulls, but since went on to miss six total games.

The Australian came off the bench during our defeat to Man City, and is now hoping November's camp with The Matildas has acted as the springboard she needs to kickstart her career in claret & blue.

Australia played back-to-back friendlies against the USA with Gielnik featuring in the latter. Incidentally, Gielnik’s appearance off the bench would be her 50^th senior cap for The Matildas!

Ruesha Littlejohn

Our no. 31 rounded off the senior representatives from the Villa squad during the November international window.

The midfielder, like Gielnik, has seen her career in claret & blue prove to be a stagnant one up to this point.

However, the 31-year-old has featured in two of our last three outings in the hopes of putting some long-standing achilles problems behind her.

Littlejohn's experience and wisdom is thought to be key for the younger players in the Villa squad as we head into an important stretch of games.

While on duty this time around, Littlejohn featured in both of Ireland’s qualifiers. A 1-1 draw against Slovakia was followed up in emphatic style, with Littlejohn contributing to an 11-0 hammering of Georgia.

The Boss

Carla Ward spoke to VillaTV following last month's defeat to Manchester City...

Sarah Mayling

Our right-back also spoke to VillaTV after the defeat in Manchester...