'It sums up Grace as a player...she's special'

Terland netted twice in the opening 31 minutes to set the Reds up for a statement victory after a chastening defeat at Anfield in our previous league outing, before Clinton struck an audacious third from distance towards the end of the first half.

"I'm guilty of not shooting enough. When I got the ball, I've seen [the goalkeeper] off her line. So I just did it," Clinton herself told Sky Sports at full-time, humbly oversimplifying the goal for the level of vision and execution required to pull it off.

Standing beside our no.8 in the joint interview, Teri added: "It sums up Grace as a player. She sees things that [other] people don't see. She's a special player and I love to play with her."

Managed Marc Skinner echoed the same sentiment when also asked for his thoughts, after his side delivered a perfect birthday present.

"Teri sums it up nicely, Grace does things that others can't," the boss said.

"Tooney's the same. They're the type of players where you need that individual quality. Grace is growing and growing and growing. That [goal] topped it off, but I thought she was really mature today. I'm really proud of her performance."

For United as a team, it was the perfect response to the game at Anfield, which had painfully ended a run of seven successive WSL wins, and Terland said hard work on the training pitch and the meeting room underpinned it.

"We knew we wanted to bounce back and I think we did that," she explained.

"We showed character and we, as a group, worked hard together this week and I want to praise the staff as well.

"We've done a really a good job and got our mindset in the right place before the game. That showed in the performance."

With Manchester City beaten just moments before the Reds took to the Villa Park pitch, it was even more important to get the result, opening up a hugely encouraging seven-point gap to our neighbours, sitting outside the crucial top three, in the race for Champions League qualification.

"It's big for us," Clinton said. "We want to get every three points we can, and we definitely want to be pushing for Champions League. Keep pushing, you never know what's going to happen with the league. It's a massive result for us and, even four goals, we need that."

Asked if knowing the City result prior to kick-off was a boost, she replied: "You've just got to get on with what you can do, because you never what's going to happen with everyone else. We've done a really good performance today."