Crystal Palace Ladies FC

Tough game for the girls this week on a pig of a pitch that did not suit either teams passing style. Palace, helped by 3 loan players had to go all out for a win to keep their slim title hopes alive but Fulham proved why they are title favorites.

Palace started with an attacking formation in order to take the game to their opponents, Tyra Wilson was battling hard up front and Captain Lucy Baker looked in control as she marshaled the back five that included Sadiye Yilmaz, Chrissy Damianides, Ash Marchant and Hannah Donnelly. Against the run of play Fulham took the lead in the 10th min with a shot that crept just inside the post, this seemed to panic our girls as they began to rush their game and they fell further behind 10mins later when a subline strike found the top corner. A now buoyant Fulham side extended that lead on 37 mins to 0-3 but our girls did not give up and battled back with a vital goal just before the break, Alice Fuller won the ball in midfield and laid it off to Abi Deene who found Karen Boakye-Danquah, she cleverly found Okasia Brown who flicked it through for Linda Mehmeti to tuck home and give the girls a lifeline at the break.

A triple substitution saw Connie Lowman, Keely Nazareth and Ella Aylett start the second half as Palace went all out attack and it was Nazareth who pulled it back to 2-3 in the 50th min following a move that saw Bekki Keyte tuck inside for Deene to release her in behind the defence to finish with aplomb. As the girls went all out to get the equalizer they were always vulnerable at the back and conceded a fourth towards the end to leave a final score of 2-4.

It was always going to be tough to play in such an attacking way against the quality of Fulham but it needed to be done, the girls gave it their best shot but it wasn’t to be so we learn from this and move onto next week.