Watford Ladies unlucky in Villa defeat

First half goals from Beth Merrick and Tasha Baptiste earned Villa their FA Women’s Super League 2 victory in front of a 300-strong crowd at Broadwater.

However Nuttall believed her side could take plenty of positives from the result.

She told the FASWL website: “I don’t think the performance reflects the score at all.

“In the first half, they weren’t in our half much and to come away 2-0 down does not do us justice at all.

“There are positives to take from the game. We played to the end and didn’t give up. We were all over them and a mistake happened, our heads went down when they shouldn’t have. But we played till the end and didn’t give up.

“We had been gathering good form at home and we didn’t want to be knocked off it. We wanted to keep this as a solid platform and not let anyone takes points off us here.”

Both sides hit the crossbar in a fairly even first-half, but just as Watford were edging things with some creative football, a slip from keeper Lucy Gillett mistake allowed Merrick’s cross from the right to drift into the net and edge Aston Villa in front.

Baptiste then curled home a killer second.

Villa had the better of a quieter second period with Baptiste having several chances to extend the lead, Gillett denying the striker with a couple of decent saves.

Watford Ladies remain bottom, with second from bottom Millwall Lionesses pulling one point clear with a 2-2 draw at Sheffield. The Golden Girls visit fourth placed Durham Ladies on Sunday.