Wednesday evening arrived in full controversy, as a sideline blunder saw a cup-tied Noelle Maritz take the field for Aston Villa in their FA Continental Tyres League Cup clash with Sunderland. The mishap will see Aston Villa’s mistake go to a footballing tribunal, to decide what possible sanction will incur. Aston Villa manager Carla Ward spoke to the media in regards to the unfortunate situation, describing it as a ‘horrible mistake’.

“First and foremost, as a club we understand that there has been a horrible mistake quite honestly. There’s been some internal conversations and investigations on how it has happened, but we’ve got to take a collective responsibility for what was a horrible moment, a horrible mistake. We have to ensure that we have got the right processes in place that this doesn’t happen again.”

Wednesday’s events placed a red marker on what has been a very impressive run in the league cup competition for Aston Villa, as the side search to defend and improve their semi-final efforts from the 2022/23 campaign. Ward reflected on how her side will look to bounce back from the blunder, and place their full focus on what is still to come.

“It’s not been easy this season let’s be honest, it’s been topsy and turvy but look I think sometimes tough moments build strength, it builds character, it brings the fight that you need to continue to move forward. I’m a resilient individual that will keep fighting, keep working hard, keep pushing everybody every day to make sure we are better in every department. We’ve got a group that are continuing to be focussed on the job in hand.

“We targeted this to try and get to the semi-final, if not the final. We believe that we’ve got enough quality to get to a final, we went to the semi last year, we [now] want to get to a final. But look, it’s in the hands of the FA now, we’re not sure what will be. What I can say is we hope they come to the right outcome of course, and whatever that looks like we will have to accept.”

To worsen an already tricky situation, Aston Villa will travel North on Sunday to face Manchester United in their upcoming Barclays Women’s Super League fixture. Depending on the decision made by the FA tribunal, Marc Skinner’s side could result in being the collateral damage of Wednesday’s squad list mistake, meaning there may be some hostility in the dug outs on Sunday.

As Marc Skinner raised his frustrations at how the situation could effect his side, Ward assured that she would be nothing but respectful of her managerial counterpart as the match arrives.

“We’re always respectful of opposition, particularly managers. If Marc chooses not to shake my hand, that’s up to him. I certainly won’t change the way that I am with him, I have a huge amount of respect for the work he has done there, as I do with every other manager in the division. Our jobs aren’t easy, and the last thing any manager needs is rivalries amongst each other, I think we all need each other in this game.”

Focussing now on the task at hand, Aston Villa will travel to Leigh Sports Village this Sunday to face Manchester United in the opening clash of ‘Super Sunday’. Despite what was a difficult start to their league campaign, the Villans have picked up four out of a possible six victories on the trot, and a win on Sunday will leave them within a three-point touching distance of the Red Devils.

“It’s a really big game, we’re going in to it in good form if I’m honest. We’ve won four out of the last six WSL games, that’s good form so I think we need to take note of that. I think we’ve been excellent in some of those games, I thought we were excellent in the defeat at City as well, and that was one of them.

Obviously we know Leigh Sports Village is a tricky place, we know at Manchester United the fans are unbelievable and it’s going to be tough. But, we’ve got a lot of quality in our side, and so have they, so I can imagine it’ll be a good game of football and it will be running close early on. It’s another opportunity to test ourselves against one of the best in the country.”

Ward’s latest opponents have found themselves on the receiving end of back-to-back league defeats, something that has seen tensions rise significantly in Carrington. The Red Devils faithful have been calling for a revaluation of Skinner’s position, so a victory at home arrives in a cape of great importance for the side. Ward reflected on whether she believes now is an optimal time to face Manchester United, or if there is a great possibility that her upcoming opponents arrive with more bite than ever.

“It’s never a good time to play a team that are up and down because you can never know what to expect. I think what we do know is Manchester United are a quality side, they’ve got top quality players in our ranks and they can win football matches and can hurt anybody on their day. So I don’t think there is ever a good time to play them, we’re going to focus on ourselves, we’re in good form. We’re finding our feet again, so it’s a good time for us to play anybody rather than us focussing on the opposition.”

“I think it’s really important if you can start picking up results in this division that things can change very quickly, and it’s in our hands now to continue on with those targets that we set out earlier on in preseason. If we go and win on Sunday then we’re three points behind [Manchester United], I’d say if we did that then we’d be in a pretty good position.”

There are many hypotheticals involved, though a victory on Sunday could see Ward’s “‘bad run’ very quickly transform in to a battle for fourth spot. Tottenham will host Manchester City this weekend, as Liverpool take on Arsenal in Merseyside. With heavy emphasis on the ‘if’- if both sides face defeat, a victory for Aston Villa could see Carla Ward only a three-point deficit away from the battle for fourth spot.

Aston Villa will travel to Leigh Sports Village this Sunday as they face off against Manchester United in the Barclays Women’s Super League. The fixture kicks off at 12pm, and can be streamed on The FA Player.