Crystal Palace dominated in first half as they lose 3-1 at Birmingham City

Jade Pennock scored twice as Birmingham City bounced back from their Women’s FA Cup exit by defeating Crystal Palace 3-1 at St Andrew’s.

Pennock’s brace and Olivia McLoughlin’s strike moved the Blues up to fourth in the Championship after they produced a dominant first-half performance that meant they had the game won with plenty to spare.

Pennock had the first good chance of the game for Birmingham after 20 minutes when she was played in by Charlie Estcourt, but she shot into the side netting.

The Blues turned up the pressure and deservedly went ahead in the 31st minute when Claudia Walker put McLoughlin through and she blasted the ball past Fran Kitching.

Some great work down the left by Siobhan Wilson almost led to a second goal for the hosts as her cross was headed against the underside of the bar by Jamie Finn.

It was 2-0 to Birmingham when Kitching mishit her clearance straight to Pennock, who accepted the gift by passing into the empty net.

Pennock then had her second right on the stroke of half-time when Lucy Quinn’s clever free kick ran through for her to finish from close range.

Finn again came close to getting on the scoresheet early in the second half when she was put in the clear by Quinn, only for Kitching to make a brave block.

Palace pulled one back just after the hour mark when Rianna Dean tapped in from close range, but Birmingham were still comfortable winners.

Palace forward Annabel Blanchard said: “It’s never easy going in 3-0 down, but we said in the changing room at half-time that the game was not over.

“If they can score three, there’s no reason why we can’t so we came out and we fought and we’ve done better in the second half, but ultimately we were not good enough today.

“We were definitely disappointed with how we were in the first half, quality-wise, and we didn’t really get out what we were trying to do.

“But credit to the girls in the second half, we thought we maybe could have got quite a few more goals, but we’ve got to take the positives from it.

“That’s a bit of a story of ours, though, and we just need to try and be a little bit more clinical. At least in the second half we were getting the chances and getting a few more people in and around the box.”

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