Women’s football: Sibley tap-in clinches opening day win for Crystal Palace over London City Lionesses
Crystal Palace took the opening day spoils at Princes Park, beating hosts – and last year’s Championship runners up – London City Lionesses, 1-0.
An entertaining, end-to-end derby was settled by an Isabella Sibley tap in, the wing-back quickest to react to the loose ball after Chloe Arthur’s strike ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar.
And the woodwork was a constant theme, both sides denied by the frame of the goal on multiple occasions.
A cagey opening half burst into life in added time, Atlanta Primus’s hit from 25 yards beating Frances Kitching in the Palace goal before bouncing to safety off the crossbar.
Picture : Keith Gillard
That was the catalyst for a much more open second period.
Chloe Arthur bettered Primus’s effort by belting one against the underside of the bar, the ball falling perfectly for the irrepressible Sibley to usher in.
The Lionesses responded superbly, Sarah Ewens spurning a glorious opportunity on the hour mark to draw them level.
Jamie-Lee Napier pinched the ball off Aimee Everett, teeing up Ewens from 10 yards – who could only snatch her effort wide of Kitching.
Picture : Keith Gillard
Picture : Keith Gillard
Lily Agg then hit the post from a header when she should have done better, but that only inspired Dean Davenport’s group.
Sibley produced a wonderful piece of skill to cut inside and then curl a fizzed effort across the goal, again denied by a post with Shae Yanez stranded.
And there was drama right to the end, Coral-Jade Haines inviting Yanez to tip her dipping effort over the goal as she went in search of a definitive second.
With minutes to play, Annabel Johnson’s perfectly timed challenge snuffed out Napier just as she was about to shoot, typifying the spirit in a new-look Palace side fielding no less than seven debutants.
Picture : Keith Gillard
“We’re still a work in progress, but we got a lot of things right today that we’ve been working on. So, credit to the players for being able to put that across.
“Izzie came to us in January, and she had a real lack of confidence and belief in her own ability. We’ve done a lot of work with Izzie and you saw the fruits of that today. She’s worked hard and spent the time to improve so we’re absolutely delighted with her. She needs to believe in herself after today.
“How we want to play defensively wasn’t quite there in spells today, but that was going to happen while we’re building. As long as we are working as hard as we possibly can to rectify any errors, that’s all we can ask.
“You saw that from the skipper [Annabel Johnson] with that outrageous tackle at the end, which was probably more important than the goal seeing the time it happened.”
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