Crystal Palace Ladies FC

We welcomed Fleet Town to Hillside for the second time this season, hoping to repeat the win against them in November rather than the defeat in February.

Jason has prepared a good pitch for us and we kicked off in cloudy but dry conditions.
It was a fairly even first ten minutes where both teams had half chances but could not capitalise on them.
Grace, Rhianna and Anya were holding a steady line in defence whilst Ellen and Blythe were playing in defensive midfield positions, allowing Rebecca, Rose and Katie to try and penetrate the Fleet defence with passes to Natalina and Brooke.
Carmela was called into action a number of times but here steady handling meant that the score remained goalless.
With 15 minutes gone, a good passing movement in midfield meant that the ball fell to Brooke just inside the Fleet half. Brooke went on a run and, showing great composure, controlled the ball well and rifled the ball past the Fleet goalkeeper to add to her tally of goals this season and to make it 1:0 to The Whites.
We kept on top of the game and other chances fell to Rebecca and Rhianna but their goalkeeper made some fine saves.
Carmela also did well with some one on ones which she did well to save.
Half time came and the players were grateful for the rest in what was a great performance, probably our best half of the season considering the strong opposition.

We knew that Fleet would be strong in the second half and we had to defend our slender advantage for the majority of the half. Some good chances fell to Rebecca and Brooke but the Fleet goalkeeper was having a great game and managed to save our shots. Blythe almost scored a wonder goal but again their goalkeeper made the save to keep the score the same.

The final ten minutes seemed to last forever, we defended like demons. Anya was up against the Fleet best player and carried out some great defending. On the occasions that crosses were whipped in, Grace, Blythe, Ellen and Rebecca managed to clear the ball.
Carmela also bravely saved at the feet of a Fleet player to preserve our lead.

Finally, to the relief of all of the Whites followers, the final whistle went and we came out on top against an impressive Fleet side.

Well done to all of the players on the pitch, it was such an exciting game and Fleet played their part fully. It has been a pleasure to play Fleet three times this season and we wished them well in their quest to get first place in the league this season.