England and Holdt inspire dramatic late turnaround to beat Villa

Late goals from Bethany England and Olivia Holdt saw us stage a dramatic comeback to beat 10-player Aston Villa on our return to Barclays Women's Super League action on Sunday afternoon.

Back following the recent international break, it was a slow burner at Brisbane Road until the game sparked to life on 65 minutes when Villa's Oceane Deslandes was sent off for a second yellow card.

However, the visitors rallied and took a surprise lead six minutes from time through Kirsty Hanson before, just over a minute later, captain England sent in a glancing header to level terms on 85 minutes.

In the ascendency as the clock ticked five minutes into added time, a superb reverse pass from Drew Spence unlocked the stubborn Villans' defence to set Holdt through on goal who showed composure to fire in the last-gasp winner and register our best-ever home start to a WSL campaign at this stage.

Embarking on our final home game of 2025, it was Villa who made a bright start on a wet afternoon in E10, Lize Kop producing a strong save to deny Rachel Maltby from inside the box after she was in acres of space. We slowly grew into the game on our return from the international break, Holdt sending a volley from the edge of the box over the bar before, on 22 minutes, we should have taken the lead as Holdt’s perfectly, chipped pass into the box found Jess Naz but she dragged wide from the centre of the area. The rain began to fall heavier in the first period as both sides continued to trade chances, England seeing her header deflected wide by Anna Patten while Miri Taylor sent a fierce drive from distance past the post, but we couldn’t be separated heading into the break.

We searched for an early breakthrough after the restart and came inches away when Naz’s low cross by the right byline beat D’Angelo at her near post and skidded across the goal-line but no one was there to tap home. Then, on the hour mark, D’Angelo pulled off an impressive save as she got down low to her left to tip England’s low shot from the centre of the box around the post after our captain was teed up perfectly by Holdt.

Making a strong start to the second period, we were then handed an advantage midway through the second half as Deslandes received her second yellow card of the afternoon and was dismissed to leave Villa with 10 players in the latter stages. Unfortunately, we were forced into a change shortly after when Naz was stretchered off the pitch with an injury. The game ultimately sprung to life with six minutes left in normal time as, despite us having the one player advantage, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock when Hanson latched onto a ball over the top from Maltby to advance into the box before poking it home at the near post.

However, less than 60 seconds later, we made an instant response to put us back on level terms, Amanda Nilden's cross from the left picked out England inside the box and she cushioned her header into the bottom right corner. The drama didn’t stop there and, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, we had completed the turnaround. It all started from a perfectly-weighted pass from Spence to set the Danish attacker through inside the right of box and she rifled a low shot into the back of the net to spark jubilant scenes at Brisbane Road after an impressive victory.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – England 85, Holdt 90+5; Villa – Hanson 84.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Hunt 29; Villa – Deslandes 28, 65

Red cards: Villa – Deslandes 65.

Referee: Abigail Byrne.

Venue: Brisbane Road.

Weather: Heavy rain, 11 degrees.

Attendance: 1356.