Crystal Palace have gone top of the Barclays Women’s Championship table with a 9-1 victory over Durham at the VBS Community Stadium this afternoon.
The sun was shining on The Eagles in today’s early kick-off as they demolished bitter rivals Durham in what could’ve been a tricky test for the South Londoners.
Durham had the better of the opening minutes and looked to have taken control of the game. However, they were caught out by the Crystal Palace counter on several occasions and were punished on the quarter-hour mark. Shanade Hopcroft picked up the ball 25 yards from goal and laid it off for Hayley Nolan who set herself well and conjured up a delightful left-footed strike that made a beeline for the top corner.
The away side were caught out on the counter again as the ever-dangerous Paige Bailey-Gayle powered down the right. She was slowed down well by Sarah Wilson but the Durham captain couldn’t prevent her from providing a perfectly-weighted ball for Annabel Blanchard to drill into the roof of the net.
Blanchard then scored her second and Crystal Palace’s third goal in first half stoppage time. The referee spotted a trip from Abby Holmes on Elise Hughes in the area and Blanchard kept her cool to slot the ball into the bottom corner from the penalty spot.
Many would have expected Crystal Palace to ease off in the second half, however, they clearly didn’t get the memo.
Just 10 minutes after the restart, Blanchard completed her hat-trick and it was a perfect one at that. A corner curled in from the left landed kindly for the Crystal Palace number 10 and she produced a confident downward header to go with her two goals in the first half.
Not satisfied with simply scoring goals, the midfielder looked to set one up as she linked-up with Araya Dennis, who squared the ball for Elise Hughes. It was a simple finish for the forward as she fired past a helpless Naoisha McAloon.
Palace continued to demonstrate their dominance with some slick attacking play. Captain Aimee Everett carried the ball out from defence and drove at the Durham back-line. She picked out Hughes with a short pass, who returned in kind, before Everett supplied her teammate once again to find the net and make it six.
Dennis turned provider once again as she produced a superb cross from the right to find Molly Sharpe who got Crystal Palace’s seventh with a wonderfully controlled header.
There was some confusion around the eighth goal as a cluster of Crystal Palace players raced to get on the end of a corner at the near post. The ball was diverted into the top corner but there were several players looking to claim it. Fliss Gibbons was credited with goal in the ground but Hughes, obviously desperate for a hat-trick of her own, had her arm aloft, suggesting that she got the final touch.
It was no matter though as a blocked shot fell kindly to the Crystal Palace number nine and with the goal at her mercy, she made no mistake from close range to truly compound Durham’s misery.
The Wildcats were able to get a consolation in stoppage time as a mix up at the back between Natalia Negri and Annabel Johnson gifted an opportunity to Poppy Pritchard and she passed the ball into an unguarded net.
Crystal Palace go top of the table, at least for a couple of hours, while it’s back to the drawing board for Durham.
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