Carla Ward hailed Sunday’s 2-0 victory against Everton as a “statement” win for Aston Villa Women.
An early strike from Kenza Dali and an own goal from Megan Finnigan stretched the team’s unbeaten Women’s Super League run to five games.
The win, which keeps Villa fifth, also opened up a four-point gap to the Toffees in the table, and the significance of that was not lost on Ward.
“It’s massive; we’ve spoken about it all week and we spoke about it before the game,” she said.
“I listened to some of their words before the game and they didn’t think it was a big game; they didn’t think that they should be worried about us.
“What we showed today is that teams should be worried about us because we’re on the right path, we’re going in the right direction.
“We put a statement out there that we’re seriously trying to improve, we’re seriously trying to move forward and we’re serious about progressing every week.”
Villa’s current form is bettered only by the top three sides in the division after their win at Walton Hall Park.
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A clean sheet for Hannah Hampton topped off a determined display and left Ward feeling positive ahead of another away game against West Ham United next weekend.
She said: “We controlled the game without the ball. We knew Everton are a top side – as are we, as we’ve shown again today – who like to dominate the ball.
“We knew that they like to possess the ball and that we’d have to be really disciplined. We controlled the game without the ball.
“They’re a different side to us and it was another good learning experience in our journey, in our season.
“I must admit I’m delighted with that today; it’s massive. The clean sheet as well is something that we’re really pleased with.”
