Millwall Lionesses 1 Crystal Palace Ladies 1 – Hincks on target against former club

Millwall and Crystal Palace both secured their first point of the FA Women’s Championship season after an entertaining 1-1 draw at Princes Park.

Ex-Millwall forward Ashlee Hincks gave Palace the lead in the 10th minute, with the visitors eyeing up a first win of the season.

But their bid was thwarted on the hour mark in quite magnificent style, Gabby Ravenscroft’s stunning effort drawing the scores level.

Millwall should have taken the lead in the sixth minute when Ravenscroft pounced onto Lia Cataldo’s perfectly-timed through ball but the striker dragged her effort just inches wide.

The home side dominated the opening 10 minutes, but it was Palace who opened the scoring.

After a quick counter-attack, Hincks found herself one-on-one with goalkeeper Megan Lynch, cleverly dinking the ball into the empty net.

Palace struggled to break through a solid Millwall defence, with the home team looking the more lively after the break.

High-pressing from Evie Clarke forced Palace goalkeeper Lynch to misplace her pass, with the ball falling to Ravenscroft on the edge of the box and she struck the ball perfectly into the top-left corner to draw the scores level.

Ravenscroft said: “The girls are buzzing about the result. We have come so far since the start of the season. It’s great to get a point after losing our first two games.

“We had a couple of chances to win it at the end which we should have taken better, but you learn and you move on.

“I saw the keeper standing to one side and I thought, I might as well have a pop.

“We are disappointed to concede so early again and that’s something we are trying to work on. It gives us such a mountain to climb in the second half which is harder when we’re fatigued.”

Palace coach Dean Davenport said: “We’re pleased with our first point, but we could have done a lot better. The players are frustrated in the dressing room, which is good. It shows their desire and passion.

“We played really well in the first-half, but we lacked work rate in the second half. We’re not going to get anything more out of the game if we don’t match the opposition’s work rate.

“We got a point, but we were looking for three points really today.

“We are giving away too many opportunities to teams at the moment. We should have cleared the ball straight away today when the back pass went in.

“We can’t afford to give teams opportunities like that to have a clear shot at our goal.

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PHOTOS BY TARA HOOK