Crystal Palace Ladies FC

A relatively warm day in Orpington set the scene for the visit of Claygate Royals, the league leaders who have lost only once this season.
We knew we were going to have a battle on our hands although the previous encounter between our teams resulted in a very narrow defeat for The Whites.

Prior to the warm-up, Paul demonstrated to the watching crowd the dangers of not wearing appropriate footwear on a February football pitch and Roland looked on approvingly.It was a very tight start to the game, a midfield battle was ensuing. Ella and Rose were playing some intricate football on the right whilst Rhianna and Rebecca were stretching play on the left hand side to try and get balls through to Brooke and Natalina. Carmela was involved a couple of times in the first ten minutes, showing some great courage to rush out and collect the ball from the oncoming opposition strikers.
The defence was doing a great job, Anya working hard on the right whilst Grace was making some superb tackles to thwart Claygate. Blythe was doing the job of a defensive playmaker – getting tackles in, winning the ball and distributing the ball to other players.

We could not hold out though. With 15 minutes gone, Claygate got through on goal and their impressive number 8 slotted the ball past Carmela who was not given any chance to make it 0:1.
The girls picked themselves up from the disappointment of going behind and battled well. Rhianna did not stop running and Natalina showed some neat play to try and wrest the control of midfield back from Claygate. Brooke started to put together some passing moves with Rebecca, who switched to playing up front whilst Rose was playing in a more withdrawn role, whilst Katie was again showing her strength whilst tackling and Ella was finding our players more and more with her passing.
We got the Claygate goalkeeper to make a couple of saves but we went into the break still a goal behind.
So the first half ended and we were slightly disappointed to go into the break 0:1 down.

The second half started and from the start it was one way traffic from The Whites, who were determined to get something out of the game. All of our players were putting in 100% effort and for the first 15 minutes of the half, Carmela did not have a great deal to do as our play was so relentless. Katie was enjoying space on the right hand side of the pitch, using her speed to get past the opposition while Ella was using the space on the left hand side of the pitch to stretch Claygate and put them under real pressure.
Rhianna and Rose were in central midfield and were always looking for the telling pass. We went close a number of times with efforts from Brooke, Katie, Natalina and Rebecca and then, with 15 minutes gone, Rebecca spotted the goalkeeper of her line and from the edge of the penalty area lobbed the ‘keeper to make it 1:1.

It was the least that we deserved and we went close a couple of times, most notably from a hard shot from Katie that the goalkeeper saved.

And then it was our turn to soak up the pressure. Our defence was coming under increasing attack and Blythe had to work hard to intercept a number of Claygate chances. Anya had the job of keeping the left winger quiet which she did with great skill and also notably used a trademark header to keep Claygate at bay. Grace again was working tirelessly in defence especially during a run of Claygate corners. Carmela did well with a couple of saves and deflections.

We held out though and thoroughly deserved to get something from the game. We showed good fitness levels, especially in the later stages of the game, and also showed some great spirit after going a goal down.

Well done to all of the squad for their performance and we take a well-deserved break until 1st March.