Manchester United FC 0-1 Aston Villa FC

I grew up in the countryside about a half-hour northwest of today’s venue but my weekends were spent at the massive behemoth that is Old Trafford, home to Manchester United’s men’s team since 1901. The women’s team, on the other hand, has had a peculiar history (which I touched on on the Empower Women’s Football podcast recently).

Whilst Lancashire has a long track record of women’s football, there was a ban on women’s football on the grounds of FA affiliated clubs between 1921 and 1971 and it was only as this ban came to a close in 1970 that any efforts were made to create a de-facto Manchester United Women’s first team. United Ladies of Manchester played their games at the men’s training ground The Cliff in Salford. Manchester United Supporters Club Ladies began operations in the late 1970s and in 1989, the side formally affiliated with the men’s club.
That partnership lasted until 2005 when the current owners deemed the women’s side “non core” and unprofitable and decided to completely wind up operations.

It was a long 13 years before the club deemed this a mistake and re-established a women’s side in 2018 – this time based at Leigh Sports Village, currently called The Progress with Unity Stadium due to a regeneration plan of the same name by LSV owners Wigan Council.

It’s an odd time to be back, since while Ruben Amorim struggles to knit together a coherent sequence of results in M16, the hosts today are making quite a fist of it amongst the surroundings of Leigh, a stadium which primarily hosts the Leigh Leopards Super League Rugby League team. This match was originally scheduled for Old Trafford, but the club pulled out, saying that the UWCL match with Paris Saint Germain on the 10th would be there “instead”. While two days is a fast turn around, the grounds crew at Old Trafford have managed it with the men before.

Aston Villa women were founded in 1973 as Solihull FC as time ran out on the FA Ban, and the club affiliated with Villa in 1989 before changing their name in 1996. In the years since, they have bounced between the first and second divisions repeatedly – settling last with successful elections to the WSL2 and the Championship in 2014 and 2018.

All of which brings me back to the match I’m here with my family to see. Thank you to my Dad and partner Nat for arranging it all. 

The Villans entered the day in 6th position. In contrast, the Red Devils were unbeaten and in position for Champions League again. Both sets of fans congregated without trouble at the Whistling Wren pub next door to the stadium before making their way inside. 

It was Remembrance Day weekend, hense the poppy at half-way and a minute’s silence. 

United dominated possession, finishing with marginally more shots (and on target) and a fractionally higher xG but were lacking in that critical final touch, with Elizabeth Terland starting at the spear of the attack and then Melvine Malard coming off the bench.

It is probably instructive that Villa’s Irish center back Anna Patten won the FotMob player of the game. The same source has that xG at 1.02 to 0.99, so maybe a goalless draw would have been a fair result. The 3434 people in the stands and boxes at the 11000 seater stadium saw a game with plenty of endeavour, however, as Kirsty Hanson marauded down the Villa right wing and Jayde Riviere linking up with Fridolina Rolfö for the hosts.

The deciding goal, one of only 3 shots on target for the visitors, came from Miriael Taylor in the 35th minute. A Lynn Wilms corner was spectacularly punched clear to the edge of the box by Phallon Tullis-Joyce but the ball was expertly returned at mid-height into the bottom right hand corner of the United goal by Taylor through the crowd. The Villa fans in the opposite corner were ecstatic. To give the visiting fans their share of credit, they were noisy throughout the match and at times kept the ground from being silent as United knocked unsuccessfully on the door.

The second half followed the same script, both teams attacking but Villa’s defense blocked at every turn and returned to the West Midlands with all three points, ending United’s unbeaten start to the season. On the other hand, Arsenal and Chelsea drew with each other. Chelsea are the remaining unbeaten side. 

United’s next league match is the Manchester Derby against table-topping City this coming weekend. Villa host London City Lionesses.