Carla Ward, manager of Aston Villa’s women’s team, remembers being told last summer that another coach in the Women’s Super League had tipped her team for relegation.
Almost a year on, Villa are fifth in the WSL table. They have taken four points off title-chasing Manchester City and beat the same opponent last month to set up a meeting with Chelsea on Sunday in the club’s first-ever Women’s FA Cup semi-final.
Ward admits that if GOAL had told her 12 months ago that the team would be in this position, “I would have called you crazy.”
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But the progress made is a testament to the work behind the scenes, the way this group has come together and some brilliant transfer business, which has led to them grabbing headlines for all the right reasons.