View: No Beth England, no problem for Tottenham Women as Martha Thomas scores three
Martha Thomas scored a hattrick to become the WSL’s outright top scorer this season as Tottenham Women once again came from behind on the road to beat Aston Villa 4-2 on Saturday 21 October.
When Beth England announced she was set for a spell on the sidelines at the start of the season, supporters would have feared the worst, however, Thomas has so far proved they had nothing to worry about.
Heading into the clash with Villa, the Scotland international had scored in every game she had played for Spurs so far, and kept that wonderful record up in impressive fashion, taking her WSL tally to six for the season after four games.
It marks Spurs’ fourth consecutive win since their opening-day 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and takes their total number of goals for the season to 17 after just five games in all competitions. It is fair to say, under Robert Vilahamn, Tottenham are flying, and few would have seen this coming.
Having gone behind to Rachel Daly’s fifth-minute penalty, Thomas levelled the contest in spectacular fashion as she won possession from her Scotland team-mate Rachel Corise and lobbed Daphne van Domselaar in the Villa goal from distance.
Ashleigh Neville put the visitors in front on the stroke of half-time, heading home Jessica Naz’s arrowed cross, before Thomas struck twice from the edge of the box in the second half to put her side 4-1 ahead and complete her hattrick.
Villa did get a stoppage-time consolation through Lucy Parker, but it wasn’t enough to change the result, and the win saw Spurs move top of the WSL, two points clear of Manchester City Women, Leicester City Women and Chelsea Women, who all boast a game in hand.
It is fair to say that they wouldn’t find themselves in the position they do without Thomas, who arrived on deadline day from Manchester United Women following the injury to England, with some people at United now likely questioning just why they let the 27-year-old go.
She has scored at an impressive rate of 1.51 goals per 90 minutes of league action and has effectively filled the void left by club captain England, who might now be wondering how she gets back into the side, a scenario which seemed impossible to consider just two months ago.
Just like against Brighton last time out, it was Thomas who levelled for Spurs after they had gone behind, and it is clear that her goals and experience are lifting those around her and improving the mentality of the team.
In other Tottenham news, ex-Spurs scout Bryan King has provided his view as takeover rumours continue to swirl around the club.