Palace were held to a 1-1 draw away at Aston Villa before they head into international break.
Crystal Palace Women faced their final Women’s Super League game before the first international break of the season today.
They travelled back up to Birmingham to face Aston Villa, who sacked their manager Natalia Arroyo earlier on in the week.
The game was largely end to end and could have gone either way, with the point being important for both sides ahead of the break.
Palace’s last meeting with the Villans had been more positive than this, however with another point secured this means Palace have only lost one game in five in the WSL so far this season, and only one game in seven in all competitions.
The game saw Fuka Tsunoda return to the starting 11 after her suspension from the WSL due to her red card against Tottenham. Abbie Larkin was also included in place of Shannon O’Brien.
Match Review
The Eagles were strong entering the first half, with Molly Bartrip having her first big chance for Palace saved by the Villa keeper in the second minute of the game. Aston Villa then found their feet and made the first half intense for Palace's defence.
In the second half Villa took the lead when Chasity Grant broke through on the right and played the ball across for Noelle Martin who was open at the edge of the box.
Palace were unlucky not to have a penalty to immediately equalise, with Larkin pushed down by a Villa player when making a run into the side of the box from the corner.
Larkin, on her second WSL start of the season, then had the chance to level the scoreline with an incredible screamer of a goal from 28-yards out. She quickly out paced the Villa defence before an incredible shot into the bottom left corner.
The Irish international, who has been called up for next week’s international break, was arguably Palace's biggest attacking threat of the match, after battling for a place in the Palace line-up.
Both teams were given a further opportunity to take the lead, with Shannon O’Brien missing a chance for Palace and then Pauline Peyraud-Magnin making a brilliant save to deny the winner for Villa.
The visitors matched the hosts in shots but got through the match with 40% possession.
Key Takeaways
While Potter and the squad would have been hoping for three points in a game against a team who have not won a WSL clash since March, it is often difficult to face a team who’ve recently suffered the distribution of loosing their manager.
The match also took their points up to 6 in the first five games, which is a promising score for the Eagles and their aspirations of trying to remain in the WSL. The other promoted teams, Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic both lost at the weekend and sit in the relegation zone.
Given some of the opponents Palace have faced, the Eagles are certainly taking more away from games than anticipated with the step up in competition this season.
Sitting 8th in the league, above Brighton, is an incredible achievement which the squad will be hoping they can carry across to the rest of the season.
