Spurs Ladies notch first WSL 2 league win over Aston Villa

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies FC are out for a new challenge this season, their first in the Women’s Super League 2, the second division of English women’s football. But while they dropped their first match of the season to Durham, they broke through with their first ever league win in the WSL — a 2-0 triumph over Aston Villa Ladies FC at Cheshunt on Monday evening.

Spurs got goals from last year’s leading scorer Bianca Baptiste and newcomer Coral-Jade Haines en route to the home victory. Haines is at Spurs on a season-long loan from top flight Birmingham FC and has wasted no time integrating herself into the Spurs Ladies side.

The match report on Spurs’ website suggests that the scoreline might have been deceptive, with Spurs having a number of decent chances on goal that did not go in the back of the net.

Spurs manager Karen Hills was full of praise for her team after the match, as reported on Spurs’ website.

"The players weren't down after Durham and as I said last week, if anything, that proved they can compete at this level. You could sense they just wanted to get out there again and we played really well against Villa.

"I can only speak positively about the team. We knew we had it in us and we've gone out there an proved it. Villa are a good side and I'm sure they will be right up there but that's two good teams we've faced now and we've more than matched both of them.”

Spurs are coming off a dominating and historic season in the FA Women’s Premier League that saw them win three cup competitions, the league, and achieve promotion to the WSL for the first time in their history. While the leap from the WPL to the WSL was always going to be a challenging one, and nobody expects them to duplicate their impressive accomplishments in a higher division this year, this win over Villa is hopefully confirmation that Spurs will at minimum be able to hang around and be competitive.

Spurs Ladies’ next match is on the road on October 8 against London Bees.