Aston Villa 1-2 West Ham United

Aston Villa Women lost 2-1 to West Ham United at the Banks’s Stadium on Sunday evening.

Abbey-Leigh Stringer and Kateřina Svitková scored either side of Alisha Lehmann’s first-half penalty to send United back to London with all three points.

For Villa, the result is a disappointing one having seen recent performances against Manchester City and Chelsea warrant a more positive outcome.

In terms of team news, Emily Gielnik was thrust straight into the starting lineup for her first appearance in 49 days having recently competed at the Women’s Asia Cup with Australia.

Lehmann also returned to the squad to complete the three-pronged attack alongside Ramona Petzelberger.

Villa surrendered possession during the opening stages of the game but looked a threat on the counter, with Jill Scott surging through the middle of the field at any given opportunity.

Scott fed Lehmann down the right-hand side on one occasion, and the winger saw a low cross scrambled away by the Hammers with Gielnik lurking in the box.

The visitors would take the lead, however, just shy of the 15-minute mark.

Svitková swung a corner in towards Hannah Hampton, and the goalkeeper spilled the ball into the path of Stringer who prodded home from close range to give United the advantage.

Villa grew back into the game and looked their most threatening when continuing to venture down the right.

Sarah Mayling saw a dangerous looking cross gathered by Mackenzie Arnold, before sending a direct free-kick over the bar moments later.

Villa continued to search for the equalizer and were rewarded just before the break.

After Petzelberger was felled inside the area, Lehmann arrowed the resulting spot kick into the bottom corner to score in consecutive games for the first time as a Villan.

The sides went into half-time level but Villa picked up where they left off coming out of the break, with Maz Pacheco drilling a long-range effort straight down the throat of Arnold.

The game would swing in the favour of West Ham once more, however, when they regained the lead.

Hampton and Anna Patten attempted to play out from a goal-kick, and the former was dispossessed by Svitková who drove into the area and squeezed an effort into the net.

In need of a quick response, Remi Allen turned an effort towards goal on the half-volley but was denied by Arnold.

From the resulting corner, Patten’s powerful header was too central and was easily held.

Laura Blindkilde Brown and Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah were thrown on in the dying stages as Villa tried to nick what would’ve been a deserved draw, but it wasn’t to be as they came away empty handed.