Crystal Palace 3 Charlton 2
Charlton Athletic were beaten 3-2 by Crystal Palace in dramatic fashion in their BWSL clash at the 360 Engage Stadium.
Charlton started the match quickly, registering three shots towards goal in the first two minutes of the game, all of which were headers and all of which came from Jodie Hutton deliveries.
First, Leah Davidson saw her effort tipped over by Peyraud-Magnin in the Palace goal. Keira Skeels then headed wide from the resulting corner, before Gillian Kenney saw her header saved by the Crystal Palace shot stopper.
In the 10th minute Palace had a header of their own which dropped onto Sophie Whitehouse’s bar, before being cleared to safety by the Charlton defence.
Charlton continued to press and hassle the Palace defence and came close to opening the scoring in the 30th minute when Jodie Hutton’s cross came within millimetres of finding the onrushing Gillian Kenney.
It took the hosts to the 44th minute to have their clearest chance of the half, Shannon O’Brien just heading wide of the goal just before the interval.
The start of the second half was almost a mirror image of the first, with Palace piling on the pressure and winning four corners back-to-back, but the Charlton defence continued to stand firm.
Charlton began to apply pressure again but found themselves a goal down when Lexi Lloyd-Smiths speculative cross caught out Sophie Whitehouse at the near post in the 57th minute.
The Addicks relentlessly pursued an equaliser and were rewarded in the 71st minute when Cassandra Korhonen was dragged down in the box by Teyah Goldie.
Keira Flannery stepped up to take the penalty, which cannoned off the crossbar, before the rebound was headed in by Elisha N’Dow.
Charlton then took the lead just two minutes later when Jodie Hutton’s right-footed shot was parried by the Palace keeper into the path of Leah Davidson who tapped home.
The hosts then fired back just five minutes later to level the match at 2-2 through their captain, Aimee Everett.
That was quickly followed by the winner, when experienced centre forward Beth England prodded home to give Palace a 3-2 victory.
Charlton: Whitehouse; Johnston, N’Dow, Skeels, Lobato, Hutton; Kenney (Neville 88), Fitzgerald, Flannery, Davidson; Lockwood (Korhonen 64)
Subs (not used): Koivunen, Siber, Mason, Robe, Humphrey, Azzaro, van Egmond
Goals: N’Dow 73, Davidson 76
Assists: Hutton 76
Booked: Flannery 58 (shirt pull)
Crystal Palace: Peyraud-Magnin, Goldie, Everett, Bartrip, Lloyd-Smith, Ladd, Tsunoda, Sharpe, Blanchard (Hopcroft 88), O’Brien (England 65), Larkin
Subs (not used): Cosme, Enge, Napier, Nolan, Swaby, Weerden, Yanez
Goals: Lloyd-Smith 57, Everett 82, England 90
Assist: Goldie 57
Booked: Larkin 60 (foul)
Referee: Amy Fearn
Attendance: 1004