Crystal Palace Ladies FC

This afternoon we welcomed BA Ladies to the National Sports Centre as our girls looked to extend their great start to 2015
Palace had a lot of possession in a first half that they failed to convert into many chances, BA were proving very difficult to break down and set themselves up in a very defensive way.

Ash Marchant was having yet another assured game at right back and looks to be improving every week, Connie Lowman was looking to create at every opportunity in a packed midfield but it took until the 23rd min to break the deadlock. It was a special team goal that was worth waiting for and taken straight off the training ground, right back, Marchant, squared to, captain, Lucy Baker who slotted inside to Abi Deene, she turned out and switched play to Sadiye Yilmaz on the left, she fed Ella Aylett who returned the compliment to the overlapping Yilmaz who, in turn played it back to Aylett who slotted home between the near post and keeper. Palace continued to press but had to settle for a solitary one goal lead at half time.

Palace continued to dominate possession in the second half but turned it into more chances. Tyra Wilson hit one wide and Okasia Brown went close before Alice Fuller extended the lead in the 57th min, Deene struck a brilliant free kick into the danger area for Brown to head down for Bekki Keyte, her shot was blocked and rebounded to Fuller 25 yards out who struck a sweet drive to the top corner for her third ‘worldy’ of the season. We then lost the influential Anais Reynolds to a groin injury which was a blow as we are short of defensive cover but were able to re shuffle with Deene dropping back to defend.

BA began to throw players forward to try to grab something back but on two occasions found Hannah Donnelly in fine form, first she was quick out of her area to clear the danger, then she expertly dived to her right to stop a vicious shot that was heading for the corner. Palace sealed the points in the 76th min when Keely Nazareth received a pass inside from Lowman, she turned and played an exquisite pass to the overlapping Yilmaz, her cross/shot was tipped onto the crossbar by the keeper but Brown was on hand to tap home and the girls headed home with all three points.

We played some really good possession football today, passing the ball around freely and confidently, stats must have been 70/30 in our favour, it is a real pleasure to see the girls developing into adult players and taking it all in their stride.