Aston Villa won their final five matches of the WSL season
Maz Pacheco scored on her final appearance for Aston Villa to complete a comfortable 3-1 victory over Brighton and finish the Women's Super League season with five wins in a row.
First-half strikes from Ebony Salmon and Rachel Daly put the hosts on top, before Pacheco wrapped up the three points for Natalia Arroyo's side, who leapfrogged West Ham, Everton and Liverpool to finish in sixth place.
For the second week in a row, Salmon required just five minutes to open the scoring, completing a solo break from the halfway line before guiding the ball beyond the reach of Brighton goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley.
Teenage forward Michelle Agyemang had three shots, including an audacious backheel, saved by Sabrina D'Angelo as Brighton searched for an equaliser.
However, it was the hosts who doubled their lead a minute before half-time, Katie Robinson and Chasity Grant linking up to pick out Daly for her eighth goal of the season.
Brighton were unlucky not to find a route back into the game, with Kiko Seike and Fran Kirby both denied by the woodwork just seconds apart.
The 26-year-old Pacheco, who had been peppering the goal in search of a fairytale finish to her Villa career, put the game to bed in the 74th minute, smashing home with her right foot before being mobbed by her team-mates.
Nikita Parris grabbed an injury-time consolation for Brighton, poking home from close range, and despite losing at Villa Park, Dario Vidosic's side held on to fifth position for their highest finish in the WSL.
Formation tweak brings out the best in Villa's attack
Aston Villa scored 16 goals in their final five matches of the season
As recently as 23 March, Villa were in the grip of a relegation battle. Arroyo had lost her first six matches as head coach, leaving her side just one point clear of bottom-placed Crystal Palace and a tense finish to the season beckoned.
But there was nothing but jubilation at the final whistle on Saturday. Not just because they had saved their WSL status by the skin of their teeth, but they had shown potential for a brighter future.
They finished the season as the form team in the WSL, winning their final five matches to climb into the top half and give departing quartet Rachel Corsie, Jordan Nobbs, Danielle Turner, and Pacheco a farewell to remember.
It's taken time for Villa to click under Arroyo but since switching to a 3-4-1-2 formation against Liverpool – for the first win of their streak – a turnaround in their fortunes has been quite remarkable.
Utilising the pace of Salmon in the front two, with Daly playing either alongside her or just behind, Villa have become a major counter-attacking threat, and the pair have nine goal involvements in their past five matches.
On the right wing, Grant has been equally impressive, chalking up three goals and two assists of her own - including one against Brighton - while there have also been supporting turns from Nobbs, Robinson, Missy Bo Kearns and Kirsty Hanson.
In total, Villa have scored 16 goals in their past five matches – as many as they had managed in their previous 17.
There's still plenty to work on – they've conceded eight goals during this run as they adapt to Arroyo's preferred high defensive line - and there's the question of who replaces Pacheco.
Playing as a wing-back, she has been an integral cog in the new formation and was a complete nuisance against Brighton on the left wing, but recent results should give Villa renewed hope for next season.
Vidosic targets more historic moments with Brighton
At the winter break, with 10 matches played, Brighton were in fifth position and just one point outside the Champions League places. However, their form tailed off in 2025, winning just three of their next 12 matches.
But while it has been a season of two halves for the Seagulls, they cemented their status as the best of the rest and recorded both their highest WSL finish and highest points total (28).
For manager Vidosic, this was just the first piece of history he hopes to create with the club.
"We wanted to try to be the best Brighton team that's played for the club, so we were able to achieve that," he said after the loss to Villa.
"We're a little disappointed with today and the performance, but I can't fault the effort. We're happy with this season, we've played some good football. It was never going to be complete in a year, so we leave ourselves a good platform for next season.
"We've got steps in place to challenge the top four and get ourselves into Europe. We set our targets to try to win, to bring history to the club, and we've done that in a different way. We all want to win games, be in those big moments to try to win trophies, and that's the next step."
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