Jessie Fleming scored the only goal of the game at the Banks’s Stadium and despite some late pressure from the hosts, Chelsea held on to secure our fifth straight league victory.

The Blues are unbeaten in all competitions since our opening day defeat to Arsenal and Hayes is pleased her side have been able to cut out the defensive mistakes and forge an impressive run of results.

She said: ‘Clean sheet. No more errors. That is the stuff I didn’t enjoy so that’s stopped. I’m happy about that.

‘It’s what I thought the game would be. They are sitting in a 5-4-1 block; they are sitting really low and you have to work hard to drag them out of the spaces.

‘We did that really well in the first half with the runs from Jessie [Fleming], the movement from Beth [England] was good. We hit the bar twice and we should have gone into half-time with two, maybe three goals but we didn’t build on it in the second half.

‘The wind was a factor. Hannah Hampton’s kicking long created a first and second ball game, then a throw-in game, then it’s 1-0 and they are in the game. That’s what it created, but we’ve won the game and a clean sheet.

‘The performance was six out of 10. No more than that. No outstanding performer but when you compete you have to learn to do these things and you can’t expect that every week is going to be two, three, four nil.

‘We knew what the game was and as a I said, at 1-0, you are away from home, the opponent is going to be buoyed by the opportunity. Ann [Berger] was precise, she was calm, confident and the team eliminated any errors.’

Aniek Nouwen was named in the starting XI once again after an impressive outing against Manchester City last weekend and the summer arrival certainly looked confident in defence during the opening 45 minutes against Aston Villa.

Hayes confirmed Nouwen’s withdrawal from the game at half-time was precautionary and reserved praise for the defender.

‘She was tight in her adductor.’ Hayes admitted. ‘This is why you have to take your time with some players. Even playing two games in a week, her body is still adapting to the speed of play here.

‘It was precautionary more than anything else but Aniek has got a huge future. You can see that already. A wonderful player, a wonderful talent. We just need to make sure we give her the right exposures without overloading her.’

A player that was missing for the trip to Aston Villa was Pernille Harder, who was also left out of the squad to face Manchester City last Sunday but Hayes expects the Denmark captain to be involved for Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Servette.

Hayes said: ‘If this was the FA Cup final today, would she maybe be here today? Yes, but we want her to be right. She’s been on the grass the last two days, she will probably in the squad Tuesday, maybe get some minutes for sure next weekend. We are just taking the right decisions.’