Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace clash ends with honours even on final day of Championship campaign

Elise Hughes earned Crystal Palace a share of the spoils at South London rivals Charlton Athletic yesterday as the two sides played out a 1-1 draw at The Valley.

Melissa Johnson gave the Addicks the lead on the final day of the FA Women’s Championship season. Charlton finished fourth with the Eagles four points behind them in fifth.

Charlton had the game’s first big chance after nine minutes when Johnson’s shot from point-blank range was saved by Fran Kitching after the visitors had struggled to clear a Freda Ayisi free-kick.

A fine ball over the top by Molly-Mae Sharpe then put Hughes in behind, with Sian Rogers standing strong to save before Annabel Blanchard put the follow-up narrowly over.

On the half-hour mark, Rogers came to the Addicks’ rescue again when she turned the lively Sharpe’s effort behind at her near post.

Both goalkeepers were putting in fine displays, and it was Kitching’s turn to shine when she kept out Angela Addison’s shot from a narrow angle.

Between them, they kept the first half goalless, but the deadlock was broken by Charlton after 56 minutes when Ayisi played the ball through for Johnson, who prodded the ball past Kitching.

Palace were level nine minutes later, however, as Anna Filbey’s long-range effort was deflected into the path of Hughes, who made no mistake in dispatching into the top corner.

Addison came closest to finding a winner for the Addicks as she slammed wide following a scramble that came after Kitching saved from Emma Hennessey.

Charlton forward Johnson said: “We’re a bit disappointed, really, because we started really well and we created enough chances in the first half, so we needed to take our opportunities in the first, including myself.

“We were a bit disappointed going into half-time, but we came out strong and managed to nick one through a great ball by Freda.

“We’ve been on a good run at The Valley, but credit to them, they went right to the end.

“We were a bit unlucky (with Palace’s goal) because we’d defended the long ball well and it was just one of those where we were unfortunate with the way it fell to her in the box.

“It’s amazing playing here and obviously we’d like to be here every week, but when we’ve been here, we’ve enjoyed the occasion and overall it’s been a good season where there are a lot of positives to take.”

Palace forward Hughes said: “After the first half we might have taken a draw, but obviously every time we go out, we want to play and when we were 1-0 down, we showed a lot of character to come back into the game.

“Then at the end we’ve had the better chances to go and win it – after our goal went in, I thought we were the only team looking to win it and that says a lot about the girls in our changing room.

“There have been times this year where it doesn’t fall to you and you feel your luck has run out. Today it did fall to me and it was just about keeping it down, getting it under control and it was more of an instinctive finish.

“Their goal actually came a bit against the run of play, but we were happy with the resilience we showed to come back.”

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PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD