West Ham United 1-1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa Women salvaged a draw in stoppage time on Saturday, as they held West Ham United to a 1-1 stalemate.

Remi Allen stooped to head home and maintain Villa’s unbeaten start after Adriana Leon’s eighth-minute opener.

Carla Ward’s side now head into the international break with four points from their opening two fixtures.

Ward made three changes from last weekend’s victory over Leicester City ahead of the visit to the Hammers.

Emily Gielnik and Ruesha Littlejohn made their full debuts, while Elisha N’Dow replaced the injured Meaghan Sargeant at the heart of the defence.

West Ham started the better of the two sides in the opening exchanges and were quick to test Hannah Hampton when Leon’s low drive was saved well.

Moments later, however, the Hammers would draw first blood.

Anita Asante, facing her own goal, got the ball stuck under her feet, allowing the hosts to pounce, and Leon was on-hand to slide home from close range.

Villa grew into the half and began to put Olli Harder’s side under considerable pressure.

Gielnik was denied by her Australian teammate, Mackenzie Arnold, from inside the area.

Alisha Lehmann then bent a long-range strike towards the goal, but the effort didn’t have enough power on it to seriously trouble Arnold.

Villa’s improved showing carried over into the second half, and they came agonisingly close to getting on level terms in the closing stages.

Ramona Petzelberger, who missed last weekend’s win, struck the outside of the post from the edge of the area before Gielnik fired the rebound wide.

Villa didn’t give up, though, and were rewarded in stoppage time for their endeavour.

Allen, as she did last weekend, was in the right place at the right time to stoop low and head the ball into the top corner from close range.

Villa were perhaps relieved to have come away with something, having been moments away from an empty-handed trip to East London.

But confidence is high heading into the international break, with a trip to Brighton coming up on the 26^th.