Amid fears that the team could be going out of business, Millwall Lionesses won their 10th league game of the season and extended their unbeaten league run to 19 game. They saw off ninth-placed Aston Villa Ladies thanks to a last minute Leighanne Robe free kick to win the game 2-1.
Aston Villa had the first chance of the game when a free-kick was sent to the back post towards Tash Baptiste, but she could only put her shot wide of Sarah Quantrill’s Millwall goal.
Disappointing
It wasn’t until the 30-minute mark when Millwall had their first chance of the game. Rianna Dean was put through on goal, but her attempt at lobbing the goalkeeper saw the ball hit the top of the bar.
Going in at half time it was a disappointing half for both sides, with only a handful of clear-cut chances for each side and there was a lot of work to be done if either team were going to claim the three points.
There wasn’t much improvement at the start of the second half as neither side seemed to have built on their first half display.
It wasn’t until the 81st minute when the first goal came. Aston Villa’s Ebony Salmon was sent through on goal and she used her pace to get past Robe and put the ball through Quantrill’s legs to give The Villains a shock 0-1 lead.
Comeback Queens
Millwall didn’t let their heads drop, as two minutes later a deflected Charlie Devlin shot fell through to Dean allowing her to stab the ball past Aja Aguirre in the Aston Villa goal.
In the second minute of stoppage time Robe took a free-kick just beyond the half way line, which looped over everyone in the box including Aguirre in Villa’s goal to land in the net and give Millwall a dramatic winner in injury time.
After the game Dean spoke of the delight at getting all three points: “I’m absolutely over the moon. With the situation that’s just happened and to go out and go 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go just shows the passion and determination we have in the team. It’s unreal.
“Having a game straight after the news we had I think helped in a way to keep our positive vibes going within the team. I just think it helped a lot for us as well.”
