Crystal Palace end losing sequence as Blanchard earns 1-0 win over Durham

BY MITUL SAMJI

Annabel Blanchard’s second-half winner brought an end to Crystal Palace’s three-game losing streak as they beat Durham 1-0 at Hayes Lane.

Palace leapfrogged Durham into sixth place in the Women’s Championship while the Wild Cats registered their sixth defeat and fell to eighth place.

Durham midfielder Beth Hepple had the first chance in the sixth minute but her shot was held by Palace keeper Frances Kitching.

Shotstopper Kitching was called into action once more as she pulled off a magnificent point-blank save and denied Saoirse Noonan at the near post.

With 24 minutes on the clock, Dean Davenport’s side enjoyed a good spell of possession as a Blanchard strike flew wide of the post before Kirsten Reilly produced a vital interception that prevented Durham a goalscoring chance on the other end.

Before half-time, Paige Bailey-Gayle launched a bursting run into the Durham box but her effort narrowly missed the bottom corner as a free-kick for Blanchard forced Durham’s Naoisha McAloon into a vital save.

The hosts started the second half strongly and Blanchard proved to be a threat once again with a low-driving effort towards the bottom corner that was superbly saved by McAloon.

But it was in the 63rd minute that the 21-year-old struck true as she met Anna Filbey’s corner and produced a towering header into the top left corner.

Lee Sanders’ side created numerous goalscoring chances, but Palace remained composed at the back with Chloe Arthur making an important goal line clearance in injury-time to secure victory.

Blanchard said: “We have been working hard week in and week out, but we’ve not been getting the results. The performances each week have been reflective on what we are doing in training and I think today it all came together including the result.

“We wanted to put our chances away, but we are getting better in putting ourselves in those positions and being clinical.

“The main thing is making sure we do put more of those chances away and could have scored a few more goals today. We are just lucky that we got a solid backline to keep the game level. It was important to put those chances away because Durham could have very easily have done it in the other end and scored their chances.

“The main thing is to take that opportunity when we had it. Durham are a very good team and very hard to play against. We wanted to make sure we were on the front foot and execute our game plan, which we did very well.”

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