Man Utd head coach Marc Skinner reasserted his call for January signings as his side’s unbeaten start to the WSL was ended by a surprise 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.
Miri Taylor volleyed home the rebound from Phallon Tullis-Joyce’s poor clearance at a corner to settle the game and keep up Villa’s solid start to the season, with just a single defeat in their opening seven matches.
On a day where Man Utd could have closed the gap to leaders Chelsea to a single point, they failed to get going on home soil and found a determined Villa defence – which had already kept three clean sheets this season – too hard to breach.
Rachel Williams aimed two headers straight at Sabrina D’Angelo late on while Ella Toone was denied by a superb Anna Patten tackle as Marc Skinner’s side laboured in attack.
“We weren’t good enough,” Skinner told Sky Sports after the game. “It’s as simple as that, we lacked detail and quality which is unlike us.
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Miri Taylor’s first-half strike was enough to condemn Man Utd to a shock first defeat of the season
“We needed a little bit of quality in certain areas, especially getting into the attack. When you don’t do that, you’re at risk of their goal. They came here not to lose the game, and they’ve gone away with three points.
“I look at the team now, nothing against the team now – there’s loads of great quality, but you just need different tools. Today we needed to go beyond Villa, they were pressing everything in front and we needed to be a little bit more direct.
“We didn’t manage to do that in the first half, we tried to play. That’s something we need to address with our recruitment.”
Arroyo: It’s a massive win
Aston Villa head coach Natalia Arroyo to Sky Sports:
“It’s a massive win. I am still excited, it’s not that I didn’t believe we would do it – but we were looking at this kind of performance, so solid. Especially after Everton.
“We suffered a bit, they were chasing the game. But we were super solid, they looked a worse team than they are and that’s credit to us.
“We had chances to kill the game earlier so I am not almost dying of tension, but I’m super proud and we’re working and building what we want to be. This type of aggressive team, positive and ambitious to compete against the top teams.”