England

Manchester City suffer WSL title agony despite win at Aston Villa

18-May-2024 16:12:31 | Guardian

Manchester City’s hopes of winning the Barclays WSL for the first time in eight years ended in despair at Villa Park. Despite a 2-1 victory on the final day, Gareth Taylor’s side fell at the final hurdle as Chelsea clinched their fifth consecutive league title on goal difference. Mary Fowler opened the scoring before Rachel Daly equalised in the second half. Lauren Hemp poked home the winner late on but it was too little too late as far as the winning the league was concerned.

Manchester City have impressed this season with their notable consistency and goalscoring prowess. Those eye-catching winning streaks, however, will do little to console Taylor’s team who fell short in the final couple of weeks. They will continue to rue the stoppage-time loss to Arsenal just a fortnight previous that gave Chelsea a second chance in the run-in and, on this sunny afternoon in Birmingham, they struggled to put away their chances against a resilient Aston Villa.