Crystal Palace Ladies FC

After a well-earned break the weekend before we welcomed Abbey Rangers to Orpington, hoping to avenge our defeat in December. Although we had heavy rain the night before, the pitch was in good condition and we kicked off in bright but windy conditions.
It was a quite an even sided first 10 minutes where players were finding it difficult to find the killer pass due to the wind. But Palace were eventually coming out on top in challenges and finding ourselves in good positions. From one such attack we were awarded a corner which Brooke took. Rebecca was available in the penalty area and found the net to make it 1:0.
We didn’t really settle down after the goal and the defence of Grace, Ellen and Blythe had to work hard to fend off attacks from Abbey. Carmela was called into action a few times but held the ball well from long range efforts.
Ella was unlucky with a shot that rebounded off the post. Brooke was working hard up front and managed to beat the defender and rifled a shot passed the goalkeeper on the stroke of half time to make it 2:0.
After half time both sides were struggling to keep control of the ball and the game turned into a midfield battle where Ella, Rose, Ellie and Rhianna had to work to get the ball under control and pass accurately.
Natalina and Rebecca worked tirelessly to make some good runs but there was no end product.
With 45 minutes gone, there was some neat passing play between Rose and Ella which resulted in a through ball to Rebecca who rifled the ball past the Abbey goalkeeper to make it 3:0.
And shortly afterwards, Rebecca went on another run and squeezed the ball passed the oncoming goalkeeper to make it 4:0.

And that’s the way the score stayed and we managed to keep a clean sheet for the first time since October, so well done to Carmela and the defence for shutting out the opposition.

Overall, a good result for us in difficult conditions.

Well done to Jason and Ricky for carrying out a pitch inspection at 07:00 and for providing us with a pitch in a good condition - many other games in the locality were called off. Their hard work is much appreciated.