Crystal Palace head coach Laura Kaminski has appealed for calm off the back of her side’s 9-1 victory over Durham yesterday.
The Eagles produced one of the biggest wins that we have seen in the Barclays Women’s Championship in recent times as they trounced an out of sorts Durham side. Crystal Palace were unbeaten in their opening two games going into this clash but nobody could’ve predicted how the match would unfold.
Under the tutelage of new manager Kaminski, all of the pieces appear to have fallen perfectly into place and she is pleased with the rapid progress.
“I think we’ve worked really hard off the pitch and on the pitch to create a culture and environment where the players are happy,” Kaminski said when speaking after the match. “That for me has been imperative.
“Those two things married together have really taken off quite quickly.”
Kaminski is perhaps surprised herself with her team’s dominance and how clinical they were when it came to taking their chances against Durham. The team hadn’t scored before the 79th-minute mark in their previous two games and developing a cutting edge is clearly something that Kaminski has been working on with her players.
“The players are very, very intelligent,” she said. “They’re good footballers, but they needed to be more ruthless in terms of the game plan and what that looks like in front of goal.”
Kaminski could never have imagined that her team would produce a performance like they did against Durham. However, she is keen to point out that Crystal Palace have won absolutely nothing yet.
She said “We need to not get ahead of ourselves and we need to keep our feet on the ground which is the most important thing. We just take each week as it comes and I need to keep really consistent with the standards that we set here for the players.
“It’s nice to be top of the table. They deserve to be there with a performance like that but it’s even tougher to stay there.”
Crystal Palace face a tough challenge to maintain their high standards for the duration of the season but they look to have a plethora of talented players that they can call upon. With four different players getting on the scoresheet, The Eagles have demonstrated that they can produce a goal from anywhere.
“We’ve got fantastic variety and I think that’s really important,” Kaminski said. “I also thought the substitutes who came on impacted the game fantastically. Even when times get tough, I want those players that are coming off the bench to try and impact the game and prove that we can score from a variety of different options. I think that’s going to be really important for us in the latter stages of the season.”
Crystal Palace will look to continue their good form when they travel to the North East to face in-form Sunderland on Sunday.