Oxford United Women’s boss Les Taylor praised his side’s attitude as they came from behind to draw 2-2 against Aston Villa in FA Women’s Super League 2, writes MATTHEW BRUCE.

Trailing 2-0 with 20 minutes left, it looked all over for the visitors, but late goals from Ella Franklin-Fraiture and Kayleigh Hines saw them grab a point ahead of their mid-season break.

Taylor felt it was the introduction of teenagers Laura Nichol and Georgia Timms that proved the key for the seventh-placed side.

“At 2-0 down you’re thinking it’s not looking very good, but we made a couple of changes and to be fair the subs have made the difference,” said Taylor.

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“We took the game to them and once we scored to make it 2-1 we knew the final score was going to be a little bit different. To come back from 2-0 down is a massive achievement for us against a decent side.

“I’m a great believer in youth development.

“They will play if they’re good enough and these girls (Nichol and Timms) are good enough.

“I thought they were excellent and they couldn’t have done any more.”

Katie Wilkinson headed the home side in front on 14 minutes after she was allowed free roam of the Oxford area at a corner.

The U’s had chances to equalise, with striker Gemma Simmonds racing clear midway through the first half only to see her effort blocked by the legs of onrushing goalkeeper Jessica Myers and Hines firing her follow-up wide.

However, it was the home side who looked the more threatening, with Wilkinson going close to adding a second when she stooped to meet Olivia Ferguson’s low cross.

They doubled their advantage just two minutes into the second half.

Amy West was left on her own in the United area, giving her time to control a hopeful punt upfield, turn and fire into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

United struggled on with little success, until the 67th-minute introduction of Nichol and Timms.

Just three minutes after she came on, Timms headed on for 17-year-old Franklin-Fraiture to race free before deftly lobbing Villa goalkeeper Myers to put the U’s back in the game.

The visitors were transformed and ten minutes later got the equaliser.

Top scorer Hines bent a free-kick over the wall to sneak past the despairing dive of Myers and send Oxford into the break on a positive note.

Oxford Utd: Lambourne, Meade, Bruce, Osborne-Ricketts, Lane, Hines, Franklin-Fraiture, Jaadla (Nichol 67), Pickett (Timms 67), Stanley, Simmonds (King HT). Subs not used: Cox, Pinker.

Ref: J Law.

Attendance: 124.