Aston Villa 1-0 Birmingham City

Aston Villa returned to winning ways as they beat rivals Birmingham City 1-0 in the Women’s Super League on Sunday afternoon.

Mathilde Harviken’s back post header midway through the second half proved the difference between the Second City rivals at a drizzly and cold Villa Park.

Defender Océane Deslandes was dismissed late into stoppage time, but Villa remained resolute to claim a hard fought win.

Brian Sørensen's side hit the road once again next Sunday to take on Charlton Athletic at the Valley in their final outing before the international break.

Hosts Villa looked for a quick start in front of a 5,672 strong crowd in B6. 

Midfielder Jill Baijings was named in the starting XI in the sole change from last weekend's narrow defeat to Manchester United, and the first chance of a drizzly afternoon fell to the Dutch midfielder in the fourth minute.

Yet after brilliantly breaking the offside trap she drove straight into keeper Sophie Baggaley's gloves.

The right channel proved particularly fruitful in the opening quarter of an hour for Villa as they took control of proceedings. Though it was Amalie Vangsgaard who engineered the next opportunity.

The striker nicked the ball off the toes of Shannon Cooke on the edge of the area, but subsequently fired over the crossbar.

It was the 25th minute before the visitors offered their first real threat, with Chelsea Cornet glancing a header across goal from a corner before Océane Hurtré's low shot was blocked away at the near post.

Villa took heed of those warning shots from the away side, stepping up their own attacking efforts towards the Holte End.

Vangsgaard escaped in behind the Blues back line once again before her low drive was denied by a sprawling Baggaley save.

The resulting corner did end up in the back of the net, however Deslandes was adjudged to have impeded the Birmingham keeper and it was immediately chalked off.

Grant was denied from a tight angle in first half stoppage time as the encounter remained goalless at the break.

It was a frantic start to the second half, with Villa stopper Akane Okuma called into action for the first time to turn Wilma Leidhammar's side-footed effort around the post.

Villa had made a half time re-shuffle, bringing on winger Lily Murphy for central midfielder Baijings, and the Blues took full advantage by assuming the early second half impetus.

Hurtré cut inside once more off the right flank to make space for a shot from range, but fired across goal and behind.

Then Cooke landed a speculative effort from more than 30 yards onto the roof of the net, before Lily Crosthwaite's stung the palms of Okuma from the perimeter of the box.

Having been penned back into their own half since the interval, Villa changed tact shortly after the hour, opting to look to the pace of Murphy and Grant out wide.

With the home side still struggling to get a foothold, they carved out the opener through a wide free kick.

Centre half Harviken, who opened the scoring against Birmingham in the Players Cup last month, had the easiest of tasks to nod into an empty net after Wilms had flicked on Deslandes' delivery.

Villa were made to weather a late surge from Birmingham as the visitors looked to walk away with a share of the spoils.

Parker did just enough to deflect Millie Turner's back post header wide from a corner, with Oriane Jean-François sticking out a leg to block the follow up.

Villa were made to see out the final minutes of stoppage time a player light as Deslandes was shown two yellow cards in quick successsion, the latter for a mistimed challenge on Hurtré.

The away side pushed hard to level against ten, but Villa remained resolute to see out a deserved victory and claim the Second City bragging rights.

Next up the Villans visit The Valley to take on Charlton Athletic next Sunday (ko 2pm) in their final league game before the break.