Aston Villa Women's manager Carla Ward has challenged the team to approach Sunday's clash with West Ham United properly after stretching their unbeaten run to five matches. 

Villa make their second trip to the capital in recent weeks after recording a 7-6 penalty shoot-out win at the Chigwell Construction Stadium just under a fortnight ago, following a 1-1 draw in the FA Women's Cup. 

However, Ward is keeping the players' feet on the ground going into the business end of the season as the Midlands outfit look to reach their expectations of a top-six finish. 

Following the FA Cup win over the Hammers recently, the 39-year-old took a lot out of the encounter and wants to keep that going on Sunday when she said: "In-house, we were looking to finish in the top six at the beginning of the season and that's still the plan, that would look like success to us and my job is about telling the players that we want more.

"We can take a lot from the FA Cup win a few weeks back, games against West Ham are always competitive, it's two teams that want to win and both games have been lively. 

<strong><a  data-cke-saved-href='https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2023/02/03/aston-villa/1136614-unai-emery-praises-leicester-boss-rodgers-as-villa-look-to-break-into-top-10.html' href='https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2023/02/03/aston-villa/1136614-unai-emery-praises-leicester-boss-rodgers-as-villa-look-to-break-into-top-10.html'>Aston Villa</a></strong> celebrating their FA Cup win over <strong><a  data-cke-saved-href='https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2021/10/29/aston-villa/1090940-aston-villa-vs-west-ham-united-preview-how-to-watch-kick-off-time-team-news-predicted-line-ups-and-players-to-watch.html' href='https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2021/10/29/aston-villa/1090940-aston-villa-vs-west-ham-united-preview-how-to-watch-kick-off-time-team-news-predicted-line-ups-and-players-to-watch.html'>West Ham.</a></strong>
Aston Villa celebrating their FA Cup win over West Ham.
 

"I have said to the players this week that the game on Sunday is about us, is we do things properly then we've every chance of winning the game, it's important to try and focus too much on what they will do because we know what that will look like. It's about how we are progressing as a football club and move forward in a positive direction and you hope to keep on stringing results with that mentality.

"We have to try and maintain the way we want to play and hopefully three points, consistency is huge going into the game, last week was pleasing in terms of how we controlled the game. 

"We prepped the players for four types of scenarios and the way in which the leaders stepped up was pleasing, we like to get on the ball and dominate while on the ball. 

"We still have a part to play in the title, Man United, Chelsea still have to come here and we still have to play Arsenal on the final day of the season."