By Georgia Garnett at the VBS Community Stadium
CRYSTAL Palace beat Aston Villa 3-1 for first-ever Women’s Super League victory at home and and a first win for new manager Leif Smerud at the VBS Community Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Aniek Nouwen opened the scoring on her debut and Ashleigh Weerden added a second before Lucy Parker pulled one back for Villa.
Katie Stengel’s 95th-minute goal sealed the points and ended Palace’s twelve-game winless streak in the WSL.
A quiet opening ten minutes passed before Ebony Salmon had the first attempt of the match, but Shae Yanez made the save.
The first half hour was dominated by the visitors, who were creating numerous chances but not converting them.
Lily Woodham had Palace’s first real attempt 32 minutes in but Villa goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo saved.
D’Angelo was forced into action again moments later to stop Stengel’s shot finding the bottom-left corner.
However, less than a minute later, the South London faithful in the 1,130 attendance were rewarded as Nouwen headed home.
The goal was Palace’s first in three games and gave the side the lead in a WSL match for the first time since their 5-2 loss to West Ham in December.
Clarissa Larisey had two attempts within the final five minutes of the first half but was unable to add to the lead.
The Eagles came out firing early in the second half as Weerden and Larisey were denied.
Eagles top-scorer Weerden doubled the lead in the 53rd minute with a shot inside the left post from the edge of the box, her sixth goal of the season.
Rachel Daly and Salmon had chances for the visitors before Villa substitutes Jordan Nobbs and Missy Kearns also went close, but the Palace defence held firm.
Villa finally got their goal when Parker capitalised on Palace’s failure to clear a corner in the 85th minute.
However, the hosts were able to hold off the visitors and deny them any chance of getting back into the match for the remaining minutes.
And in the final moments of the game, Stengel capitalised when D’Angelo lost possession to leave an open goal.
The victory marked Palace’s second of the WSL season.
It takes the team to nine points after sixteen games, just one point behind second-last Villa in the battle for WSL survival, with only one team going down.
Palace return to action this Saturday when they travel to Everton for a 2pm kick-off.
