Daly scores two as Spurs and Villa draw thriller

Rachel Daly scored twice to boost her Golden Boot bid as Aston Villa shared a six-goal Women’s Super League thriller at relegation-threatened Tottenham.

Early strikes from Kirsty Hanson and Daly had put Villa in charge.

The draw leaves Tottenham ninth, three points clear of bottom side Leicester, who have a game in hand on Spurs.

Villa, meanwhile, remain fifth despite falling short of a fourth successive away win.

Daly’s double takes her league tally to 15, just one behind top scorer Khadija Shaw of Manchester City.

Both were simple finishes for the England striker, side-footing home Anna Patten’s first-half knockdown and then stealing in at the far post to head in a corner to six minutes from time.

Villa boss Carla Ward has said one of her side’s key targets for the remainder of the season is to aid Daly’s quest to win the Golden Boot and Spurs’ poor marking provided a further helping hand.

But the strugglers showed great character to turn the game on its head, even though Daly’s late leveller keeps them in the midst of a relegation scrap in which three points separates the bottom four teams.

Summanen sparks Spurs’ surge

Coming into the game on the back of 11 defeats in 12 games, Spurs’ season looked to be going from bad to worse when Hanson fired Kenza Dali’s pass beyond Becky Spencer and Daly soon doubled the advantage.

But Summanen dragged them off the floor in stunning fashion – the Finn had never scored for Spurs before this month but made it three goals in two games by striking either side of half-time.

The first owed much to a superb reverse ball from England to Ashleigh Neville, who was upended by Hannah Hampton but the referee played advantage for Summanen to slide into an empty net.

And after Hanson wasted a great chance to restore Villa’s two-goal cushion right on the interval – her tame finish foiled by Spencer – Summanen caught the visitors cold at the start of the second half by firing in off the bar from six yards.

England then capitalised on being given the freedom of the six-yard box to take her Tottenham tally to six goals in eight games since her January switch from Chelsea.

She is proving to be a crucial signing, having scored or set up a goal in every game but one since moving across London.

Alisha Lehmann steered a great opportunity wide for Villa from Hanson’s low cross but Daly was not so lenient as she denied Spurs interim boss Vicky Jepson a second win in four games since taking over from the sacked Rehanne Skinner.

Tottenham now face crucial games at home to both Brighton and Reading – the two sides immediately below them – during the run-in after registering their first league draw of the season.