Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion

Aston Villa Women ended the calendar year on a high with a narrow 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

Adriana Leon scored the decisive goal just past the hour mark at Poundland Bescot Stadium as Villa leapfrogged the Seagulls in the Barclays WSL table.

The goal was Leon’s second in a week, while the result itself completed a positive eight-day spell which also included encouraging displays against Manchester City and Durham.

Carla Ward made a trio of changes from the side that started the Conti Cup success against Durham, with Kenza Dali, Jordan Nobbs and Rachel Daly coming in for Laura Blindkilde Brown, Olivia McLoughlin and Ebony Salmon.

Villa, as they did in their previous two December fixtures, made a bright start.Dali clipped the top of the crossbar from distance as the hosts put the Seagulls under considerable pressure.

Brighton’s Elisabeth Terland, scorer of 10 league goals so far this season, did strike the woodwork at the other end to remind Villa of the danger they could cause on the counter attack.

Villa will have wanted to make their pressure count before the half-time break, but their dominance continued into the final frame and they deservedly took the lead in the 63^rd minute.

Anna Patten clipped a ball down the right channel for Leon to chase down, and it looked as though the Canadian would be shepherded into the corner with relative ease.

But the fleet-footed attacker turned her defender and made a beeline for the Brighton box.

Suddenly, Leon bared down on the six-yard area and she squeezed an effort into the net with her left foot to spark scenes of jubilation and relief.

Villa’s superiority will have made many expect the final stages to be seen out fairly comfortably, but those plans were thrown out of the window somewhat when Maz Pacheco was sent off for a pair of bookable offences.

Still, everything thrown the way of Anna Leat and co. was sent in the opposite direction as Carla Ward’s side went into the Christmas break looking up.