Crystal Palace Ladies FC

The 1st team Res gave table topping Brighton a real scare after leading twice in this game and made the League leaders happy to scramble a 2-2 draw.

Palace went ahead from a great determined run from Gosia only to have the scored levelled from a dubious penalty which Sophie got a hand to but could not keep out.

This was against the run of play and Brighton had not looked like scoring until then with great performances from Lexie Lou Amy and Jas holding strong in defence and not conceding ground to the Brighton attack.

Playing our 4-3-3 system our forwards had to work hard to press the Brighton midfield and defence as our midfield were instructed to keep shape and not press to far forward. This frustrated Brighton who kept passing across their own midfield and backwards to their defence and when they tried to get forward were cancelled out by lack of space in our half.

This allowed room for Shay Leanne and Gosia to attack Brighton at pace down the flanks when we gained possession which caused Brighton problems all day.Palace went ahead again from one of these attacks with a superb goal from Shay who drilled the ball home with a fine shot from outside the box.

Palace kept attacking Brighton who seemed to be unable to cope with Manager Clint Lancaster's tactics and were still limited to possession in their own half and knocking the long ball over the top and were being frustrated by our superb back four.

The equaliser came after Palace got caught in possession on the left and the ball was crossed for a shot which eluded Sophie and gave Brighton their leveler.

This was probably a bit unfair on our girls who had battled hard and looked as if they would win the game but overall it was probably a fair result against a very good and well drilled Brighton side.

Manager Clint Lancaster said he was very pleased with the girls who put in an excellent team performance and did not stop working for foreach other for the whole game.

Well done girls we are all proud of you...Come on you Eagles