After a strong start to the 2026-27 season, hopes and expectations had begun to tick up for Liverpool Women ahead of their Super League match against Aston Villa on Sunday, particularly as Villa started the day four points back of the Reds and with no wins from their first five matches.
Unfortunately for them, after going up in the first half thanks to a Natalia Ramos goal in the 16th minute, a pair of second half Villa markers—including a game winning own goal from Liverpool’s Grace Fisk—saw them end
the day defeated. It’s not a result that’s the end of the world, but it’s not what many were expecting heading in.
“I’m really disappointed as it’s a game we shouldn’t lose,” head coach Gareth Taylor said following the match, which started well but managed to end in a 2-1 defeat. “It’s that final ball—it’s hard to play against a back five—but in the first half I felt we had total control of the game.
“Second half they changed to a back four so spaces were there for us, but we just didn’t work the goalkeeper enough. We had a lot of the ball but then they had their physicality and we didn’t defend from our attacking corner well and conceded [an own goal] on the counter attacker. So it’s a hard one to take.”
The upside, perhaps, is that on balance Liverpool will feel like they probably should have won. That they had more and better chances and that if they’d taken them it would have been a deay ending with three points heading home with them rather than staying with Villa in Birmingham.
Next up, Liverpool Women have a tricky League Cup group phase tie against Manchester United, currently three points ahead of them in the league table and having beaten the Reds 1-0 in the league earoier in the month. After that, it’s back to FAWSL play with a home date against London Lionesses.
“With all of the play that we have we can really dominate teams,” Taylor added of how their afternoon against Villa went. “But the hardest thing in football is putting the ball in the back of the net.”
