At A Glance
Aston Villa Women's year begins at Poundland Bescot Stadium on Saturday as they take on Everton in the FA Cup fourth round.
Carla Ward will be looking to take the club to round five in consecutive seasons after 2023's run to the semi-final.
The Villans will be looking to take their ever-improving Barclays WSL form into a cup competition they would love to go the distance in.
Everton’s best run in the cup saw them win the competition in 2010, beating Arsenal 3-2 at the City Ground in Nottingham.
Brian Sørensen has so far guided the Toffees to 7th place in the Barclays WSL, however they have already been knocked out of the Conti Cup.
Everton’s away form has been improved, though. They have won two of their last three on the road, including a 2-1 success at Villa Park in November.
The Last Meeting
Villa’s unfortunate home form against the Toffees continued with a 2-1 reverse in November.
Anna Patten's own goal opened the scoring before Rachel Daly equalised immediately.
Nathalie Björn netted the decisive goal from the penalty spot as Villa's search for home win against Everton goes on.
Team News
Carla Ward confirmed during Thursday morning's press conference that Dan Turner is likely to be out until the middle of February with a knee problem.
The defender sustained the injury during December's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City and will miss at least the entirety of January.
Lucy Parker, meanwhile, is unlikely to feature again this season and is set to undergo surgery on a recurring knee problem.
The Boss
"They’re always a team that wants to get the ball down and play. It’s going to be a tough game – it always is. We’ve had some really close battles against them since Brian’s been in and I think he’s done a really good job with them. It’ll be tough but we’re going out there to try and progress to the next round and nothing less.”
Carla Ward
