Spurs Women were hit by a late sucker punch at home to Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon as an 87th-minute header from Ramona Petzelberger saw us fall to a 1-0 defeat.
Despite dominating proceedings at the Hive, and seeing a Ria Percival effort cleared off the line midway through the second half, Petzelberger stepped up to claim all three points with three minutes remaining as she powered home the visitors' only effort on target of the game.
Both teams started at a thunderous pace, however chances were at a premium in the first 45 minutes. With two minutes on the clock, we had an initial sight of goal - Eveliina Summanen’s strike from distance was easily gathered by goalkeeper Hannah Hampton – but that was the only effort on target for either side in the first half.
Despite the lack of clear-cut opportunities though, we dominated the ball throughout the opening period and looked to exploit the Villans down the wings. However, when we managed to get ourselves into promising positions, we couldn’t quite get the desired contact on the ball to force a breakthrough – Kyah Simon, Ashleigh Neville and Rachel Williams all came inches from connecting with dangerous deliveries into the box. Other than that, we were forced to try our luck from distance, but neither Maeva Clemaron nor Simon could test Hampton from range.
While we might not have been able to break the deadlock in the first half, we continued to dominate proceedings in second period. We should have been ahead on 64 minutes as, after neat play from Kerys Harrop and Summanen, Percival saw an effort cleared off the line by Rachel Corsie. Molly Bartrip also came close 20 minutes later, heading Percival’s in-swinging corner onto the roof of the net.
However, it was not to be our day as, with three minutes left to play, Corsie flicked on Mayumi Pacheco’s cross into the path of Petzelberger, who headed the ball over Becky Spencer and into the back of the net.
