It was a successful trip to London for Carla Ward’s side, as Aston Villa found 2-1 victory over Tottenham in this afternoon’s Barclays Women ‘s Super League clash at Brisbane Road Stadium.

Individual moments of brilliance from Adriana Leon and Jordan Nobbs made the combined score in E10, as the Villans now only trail sixth spot on the league table by a total of three points. Carla Ward spoke on the victory in her post match meeting with the media, reflecting on what was a top performance from her side.

“I think it was a deserved win. I think the way we set up to hurt them, hurt them. You could see after the first twenty minutes, them coming to the sideline and asking how to deal with our threats, which is essentially what we wanted.

We went in at half time disappointed to concede, but overall I think the message at half time was, excellent, but now let’s try and go up another gear. The way they adapted their press, there was spaces that we could hurt them again, and we did that in the second half. It was a bit of cat and mouse in the second half, but I think over the course of 90 minutes, and the way that we executed and dug in, I thought we deserved the three points.”

The clash at Brisbane Road Stadium saw Ward’s side work well to claim the midfield territory, as Aston Villa managed to set the tempo of the fixture across the duration of the ninety minutes. Ward digested what was a brilliant midfield performance, speaking on what she put the performance down to.

“When they set up in a 4-4-2 in the way they do, and we’‘e got three bodies in there we know we are going to have an overload but we have to take advantage of that. A bit of work we’ve done in the week in making sure that we had Rachel Corsie splitting the two, which allowed the other two a bit of freedom. Jordan [Nobbs] was always a spare player, so it allowed us to play out through her which was excellent. Really delighted- delighted with the win, delighted with the players. I thought they were first class, I think they gave everything today, they really did, and I couldn’t have asked much more from them.”

Spurs dynamic attacking duo in Martha Thomas and Bethany England were left wondering today, as neither were able to find the space to make a cutting edge impact on the fixture’s result. Aston Villa’s last line worked in cohesion to nullify any threat that may have been imposed by the star strikers, something that Ward reflected on gleefully.

“Tottenham were very very direct, and you could see that they wanted to go long quite quickly. Which didn’t surprise me as such, it probably surprised me that they did it so much against us, but maybe that’s a compliment to us and how we’ve been playing. I think our backline dealt with them brilliantly, they really did, and I think they nullified that threat.”

A notable shift in dynamic for Tottenham came through the marginal impact of Grace Clinton, as the 20 year-old has continued to prove to be a star asset for Robert Vilahamn’s side. Clinton saw minimal time on the ball throughout the fixture’s duration, something that Ward confirmed to be a particular focus for her side as they entered the clash.

“She likes to come inside the pitch. While she starts off the left, we knew that we had to stop the switch, we knew we had to protect the central areas so when she did start to try to come inside, we knew we had a plan for that. It frustrated her, you could see that, she was asking whether she should stay outside or whether she should come and join in as a three. I think we adapted to look after that, at half time we showed them how she was trying to then change to come inside. Sarah Mayling did her job on her really really well, I thought Sarah Mayling was outstanding today.

I think Grace Clinton quite honestly is one of the most in form midfielders in the league right now, and credit to her, she’s had a season and we had to pay particular attention to her. We did, and the girls have executed it brilliantly.”

The victory in E10 marks Aston Villa’s fourth win on the road this season, as Carla Ward’s side prove why they shouldn’t be discounted.