Preview: Aston Villa Women vs. Reading Women - prediction, team news, lineups

The Villans currently sit in sixth place in the Women's Super League, while Reading occupy 11th position after winning only one of their six league games.

Match preview

Aston Villa began the season with two straight victories, but a run of three consecutive league defeats curtailed their promising start.

They managed to return to winning ways before the international break, with Rachel Daly scoring from the spot against Liverpool to guide her side to a 1-0 victory.

As a result, Aston Villa have won two of their three away WSL games this season, keeping clean sheets in both of those victories.

Although Carla Ward's side have fared well on their travels, they have won only one of their previous 13 home games in the WSL, while their last two home games have both ended in defeat.

Aston Villa will be looking for the sort of performance that saw them come from 3-2 down to record a 4-3 home victory over Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season.

Reading managed to end a 14-game winless run in the WSL when Rachel Rowe scored two late goals to help her side secure a 2-1 win over Leicester City.

However, the Royals were unable to build upon their first win of the season in their most recent outing where they were swept aside by Manchester City.

After playing out a goalless first half, two own goals from Emma Mukandi allowed Man City to take a comfortable lead before Khadija Shaw scored in the 76th minute to condemn Reading to a 3-0 defeat.

That result leaves Reading level on points with Liverpool, while the two sides are currently three points clear of Leicester City, who sit in the one and only relegation place after failing to pick up a point from their opening seven league games.

The visitors will at least be confident of recording a positive result on Sunday after avoiding defeat in all four of their WSL meetings with Aston Villa.

Aston Villa Women Women's Super League form:

W

W

L

L

L

W

Aston Villa Women form (all competitions):

Reading Women Women's Super League form:

L

L

L

L

W

L

Reading Women form (all competitions):

Team News

The hosts are still without the service of Meaghan Sargeant, Simone Magill, Remi Allen and Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah due to injury issues.

Emily Gielnik and Ruesha Littlejohn are also set to miss out due to calf and foot problems respectively, although the pair are both close to returning to action.

With Ward set to name an unchanged lineup, Daly will continue to lead the line for Villa, and the England international will head into Sunday's contest in impressive form after scoring in all of her last four games for club and country.

As for the visitors they are expected to be unable to call upon Bethan Roberts and Deanne Rose, while Brooke Hendrix and Emma Harries are also set to miss out due to injury issues.

Kelly Chambers is expected to keep faith with the back three of Gemma Evans, Diane Caldwell and Mukandi, with Reading still searching for their first clean sheet of the season.

Natasha Dowie dropped out of the side for the defeat to Man City, but the forward is expected to return to the starting lineup on Sunday.

Aston Villa Women possible starting lineup:

Leat; Mayling, Patten, Turner, Pacheco; Blindkilde, Corsie, Dali; Lehmann, Hanson, Daly

Reading Women possible starting lineup:

Burns; Mitchell, Evans, Caldwell; Bryson, Rowe, Vanhaevermaet, Woodham; Wellings, Dowie, Eikeland

We say: Aston Villa Women 1-1 Reading Women

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