Women’s football: Honours even as Vassell’s late own goal secures Palace a point against Charlton

Shauna Vassell’s injury-time own goal snatched Crystal Palace a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Charlton.

Lois Heuchan’s first-half header gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the derby at Hayes Lane, but they couldn’t hold on as an unlucky  Vassell diverted the ball into her own net.

The closely-fought contest was Karen Hills’ first match as Charlton head coach after her appointment last week.

Crystal Palace came closest first, when an inswinging free-kick was deflected just wide off Addicks midfielder Charley Clifford.

Then the visitors came very close, when Ella Rutherford’s header deflected off a defender and went just over.

Charlton’s pressure paid off after 18 minutes, when Heuchan rose above the Palace defence to bundle home the ball from close range.

The visitors should have doubled their lead on 33 minutes but Rutherford’s effort eluded everyone, only to come back off the bar.

Palace’s first-half chances fell to Kate Natkiel, who shot high and wide, and then Annabel Johnson – who put the ball just over Eartha Cumings’ crossbar.

Dean Davenport’s team were frustrated whenever they came forward after the restart as Charlton kept 11 of their players behind the ball.

The visitors shouted loudly for a penalty with 20 minutes to play and were convinced Jess King’s shot came off a Palace hand, but the referee waved it away.

With five minutes of normal time to play, Chloe Morgan got down low to parry King’s shot wide as Charlton looked for a second.

A goalmouth scramble ensued from an 89th-minute Palace free-kick, with Charlton keeper Cumings gathering the ball but getting winded in the process.

In five minutes of injury-time following a significant concussion check, Palace got their deserved equaliser with the own goal falling unfortunately off Vassell and into the net.

Crystal Palace defender Annabel Johnson said: “I’m frustrated. The first-half performance wasn’t good enough – the girls know that.

“The quality wasn’t good enough, I don’t think the work rate was good enough. Come back out in the second half, they’ve sat us for the whole half. That’s a sign of respect, that’s a tick in the box. As I’ve said inside, I don’t think Charlton have ever respected Palace, so Palace are moving up the league in that way.

“And we can’t complain with a last-minute equaliser. I think before Christmas, we wouldn’t have got that equaliser. It’s about taking minor wins out of the performance and moving on from there.

“They’ve done game management since they scored. Chloe’s [Morgan] not made a save in the second half. I was thinking we deserve a draw at least, even if we’ve not been our best.

“The girl that scored the own goal was the one they’d posted about all week scoring the last-minute equaliser against us, so that’s a nice feeling as well.”

Charlton goalscorer Heuchan said: “Right now, it’s hard to see the bigger picture, but a point is good. To concede a goal in the last minute, it feels like you’ve lost the game, and that’s the case today.

“[Shauna Vassell] fought all throughout the game. That was just unlucky. We could have done more to stop the cross coming in, we could have done more to prevent that. It was majorly unlucky, and not Shauna’s fault at all.

“It’s a derby, you want to win. It was a massive game. If you see the bigger picture, a point is good. We didn’t lose. Three points would have been nice. We deserved three points. I’m massively gutted.

“[It was a] brilliant delivery [for my goal] – I just got on the end of it.

“[Karen Hills] has been fantastic. She has only brought positivity. The only way is up, essentially. Gaffer [Riteesh Mishra] is obviously still here. It’s a big part to have him part of the team still. We’re all together and unity is what’s going to keep us up, hopefully.”

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PHOTOS: KEITH GILLARD