Women’s football round-up: Kaminski keeps faith as Palace lose to City – Charlton miss chance to go top of Championship
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Crystal Palace suffered their fourth defeat of the Women’s Super League season as they lost 3-0 at Selhurst Park to leaders Manchester City on Sunday.
Goals from Jess Park, Jill Roord and Khadija Shaw saw City boss Gareth Taylor – who played up front for the Eagles men’s team in the 1995-96 season – claim all three points.
Laura Kaminski’s Eagles are two points above the relegation zone in ninth after their first six top flight outings.
Kaminki said: “We speak about closing the gap between us and top sides, and that was as our plan and that is our journey.
“Manchester City are top of the table at the moment, so playing that side is a huge challenge. It needs a battle mindset, it needs hard work.
“In terms of where we’re at and our journey in terms of being a newly-promoted side, to go 3-0 against Man City shows direct progression against the game (a 7-0 loss) against Chelsea, which was only five games ago.
“The scoreline suggests there has been a direct improvement in terms of conceding goals. We hit the bar, we’ve had chances as well, so the quality is there, it just needs fine-tuning.”
The Eagles host bottom-of-the-table Everton, who have only scored once in the WSL this season, on Sunday.
Chelsea maintained their perfect start to the WSL season with an emphatic 5-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park.
Five different goalscorers – Aggie Beaver-Jones, Erin Cuthbert , Guro Reiten, Wieke Kaptein and Ashley Lawrence – gave the west Londoners all three points.
Chelsea will move two points clear of City if they win their game in hand.
Beaver-Jones, 21, has netted three times in all of her three starts this season.
“That’s the high level, you have to compete in the club and in the national team,” Bompastor said of Beever-Jones to Sky Sports.
“She has a lot of quality, she is able to score and help the team to possess the ball. She just needs to trust herself more sometimes.
“She will have all the opportunities to start games and to make an impact for the team, so I am really happy for her. It will be good for her confidence as well.”
Charlton Athletic missed the chance to go top of the Championship after they suffered a late 1-0 defeat at home to Southampton.
Tara Bourne’s 80th-minute strike was the difference as Karen Hills’ side extended their winless league run to four matches.
“I’m disappointed,” Hills told CharltonTV. “We did okay and played well – we were solid in defence. We knew they had some fantastic players. We needed to be at our best today, and we were.
“It was just one error that separated two very good teams. There were chances at our end where we could have made a little bit more from it.
“We have two weeks now to really prep and review to make sure we’re fully ready to go against Bristol City in two weeks.
“We don’t change the way we go about our work on a day-to-day basis. We will get our heads down and work hard.”
London City Lionesses moved up to second in the Championship table after a 1-0 win at Sheffield United.
Defender Georgia Brougham scored the clincher in the 84th minute as only goal difference kept Birmingham at the top of the table, with both sides on 16 points.
Hayes Lane-based London City have one game in hand over the Blues.
AFC Wimbledon were knocked out of the FA Cup after losing 4-2 on penalties to Watford in their first round tie. The match had ended 0-0.
Millwall Lionesses are at home to Barking on Sunday in the London & South East Regional Premier Division.