Final score: Aston Villa 0 Sunderland 3

SUNDERLAND boss Mick Mulhern believes few teams will leave Aston Villa with the kind of result they achieved to remain perfect in the newlycreated FA Women’s Super League Two season.

Beth Mead netted in the ninth minute and the 40th as well as hitting the post – all in the first half – while Abbey Joice added a third in Sunderland’s defeat of Villa at the death.

Sunderland have now dispatched of Durham, Reading and Aston Villa to start the FA WSL2 season and Mulhern admits other teams will be hard pushed to follow their lead in the West Midlands.

“Three out of three – we can’t complain – but there’s no easy game at this level. This is a great result for us to come to the Villa and win 3-0 because teams don’t do that,” he said.

“It’s always a difficult place to come, they are always well organised and get behind the ball very well, but we had a game plan and to be fair it worked.

“It was never going to be easy. We were up against it with their set pieces and corners but our girls were very resilient, we showed a lot of character and we picked off Villa bit by bit.”

The first chance of the game fell to the visitors in the fourth minute when Keira Ramshaw was put through by Rachel Furness but her shot went just wide of the post.

But Sunderland did take the lead on moments later with a close-range shot from Mead before Villa almost equalised as Jade Richards headed just wide from a Chloe Jones free-kick.

Mead was denied a second by the post after 15 minutes but did get it just before the break from close range yet again following a fine Victoria Greenwell cross.

Villa had a flurry of chances to get into the game after the break as Carly Davies was stopped by Rachael Laws and Alicia Robinson’s rebound from close range was cleared off the line.

Further opportunities arose and substitute Olivia Fergusson had shot herself cleared off the line before Joice added a third for Sunderland from a Mead pass in the 89th minute.