Crystal Palace Ladies FC

Surrey Eagles 2 C.Palace Ladies Dev Res 2

Palace travelled to Surrey Eagles for a tough fixture with a depleted side having lost Anais Reynolds to injury.

It’s always a tough physical battle against Surrey and today was no different, from the first whistle the tackles were flying in but our young girls were far from intimidated as they tried to stamp their own brand of football on the game. The best moment of the first half came in the 17th min with yet another team goal starting from the back, Abi Deene, playing as a makeshift centre back knocked it to Alice Fuller who in turn found Connie Lowman, she chipped it through to Okasia Brown who exquisitely flicked it behind the back four for Keely Nazareth to run onto and score with a placed shot. Bekki Keyte, then, went close following a long clearance by Lucy Baker as Palace looked to get in behind the defence more often.

Surrey offered little threat as all through balls were tidied up by an alert Hannah Donnelly in goal. Palace extended the lead before half time when an Ash Marchant clearance found Nazareth, she knocked it wide to Brown who unleashed a thunderbolt strike from 20 yards that nestled just inside post and crossbar (a potential goal of the season?) giving the girls a well-deserved 2-0 lead at the break.

Surrey came out with renewed vigor in the second half and began to take control of the game, following a dominant 15min spell our lead was wiped out with two Surrey goals in 2 mins. This prompted a change in shape as Brown dropped into midfield to add strength, a change that worked as it was looking like we could be overrun by pure physical strength in the middle of the park. Palace began to take control again in this ding dong battle and came close to regaining the lead when Sadiye Yilmaz played it down the line to Ella Aylett, she cut inside and crossed for Tyra Wilson who hit just wide then 3 mins from the end Palace were awarded a penalty when Nazareth was taken down, but the penalty was missed and the game ended a 2-2 draw, probably a fair result on the balance of play.

A tough game today and more lessons learned, we need to see out games when 2-0 up and perhaps play in a more defensive way rather than looking for that killer goal. A real positive was the way the girls stood up to the physical battle, they never shirked a challenge and kept going right to the end always looking for the winner.