Shootout win for Women’s Under-19s after Palace draw

Our Women’s Under-19s earned a bonus point in the Professional Game Academy League after a penalty shootout success over Crystal Palace on Wednesday afternoon following a 1-1 draw in normal time.

Eloise Summers-Mee got us off to the perfect start as, for the second week running in the competition, we opened the scoring after just four minuteswith the forward slotting home her first goal of the season after good work from Jhanaie Pierre. However, Palace fought back and found a leveller midway through the first period with Tella Ezeh finding the back of the net.

Despite an action-packed opening half-hour at Cray Wanderers, the game lacked quality from that point onwards and, while we dominated the play in the final quarter-of-an-hour, we were indebted to goalkeeper Erin Radbourne as, in the final minute of stoppage time, she produced a brilliant save to deny Rosie Rowe from the penalty spot and subsequent send the game into a shootout.

Having fallen short in the shootout with Southampton last week, we responded well to calmly slot all four of our spot-kicks away to win 4-2 on penalties and take home an extra point in the league.

Pierre was a late addition to our starting XI after replacing Faye Fields-Davis, who suffered a small knock in the warm-up, and the forward was influential in the opening stages to help us get off to the perfect start. Having advanced down the left-hand side and towards the byline, Pierre played it back to Summers-Mee centrally outside the six-yard area and she slotted home the opener on four minutes. Having scored free-kicks in our last two games in the PGA, Grace Breen was denied by the hosts’ shot stopper this time around, getting down low to her left to keep out Breen’s effort from 20 yards out before, shortly after, Palace had an equaliser. Aaliyah Jackman got behind our backline and found acres of space inside the right area of the box before squaring the ball across to Ezeh to convert from close range.

Rania Oukriss fired a first time shot wide of the target after Palace failed to clear their lines before Holly-Mae Elmes’ effort from distance was routine for the Palace number one as we pushed to reinstate our lead in the contest, however, the home side still posed a threat and we indebted to Radbourne who stood strong to block Jackman one-on-one as both sides couldn’t be separated before the break.

Our shot stopper denied Jackman once again just six minutes after the restart before producing a fantastic save at full-stretch to push Maddie Thurlow’s effort from the edge of the area over the bar. We picked up the tempo in the final 20 minutes of the contest and we started to carve out opportunities, Mia Endacott’s corner striking the woodwork before a powerful strike from distance grazed the top of the netting while Rania Oukriss, in acres of space inside the left area of the box, was unable to curl past the Palace keeper. However, with just one minute left in normal time, the home side were awarded a penalty as Bartlett-Antwi was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the box. Rowe stepped up to take the spot-kick, but Radbourne dived to her left to push her effort away and earn us back-to-back draws in the PGA League, extending our unbeaten run to three games in the competition, before a subsequent penalty shootout followed for a bonus point.

After both sides converted their first spot-kicks, Palace were unable to convert their following two penalties and, after we calmly slotted away our two after the opener, Ruby Gaitely stepped up to score the winning penalty and secure us a 4-1 win.

Penalty shootout

Spurs – Barraclough - Scored

Palace – Higgs – Scored

Spurs – Elmes - Scored

Palace – Collins - Missed

Spurs – Oukriss - Scored

Palace – Barrington Browne - Missed

Spurs – Gaitely – Scored

"There’s plenty to build on ahead of our Cup clash"

Reflecting on the game, Head Coach Sabiha Jamal said: "On the back of last week, when we were in a similar position but we lost the penalty shootout, I think we've shown a lot of growth to come back and score four penalties in a row. Looking back at the 90 minutes, I think we could be frustrated we didn't take our chances but, again, that's our learning going forward and there's positives to take from today's performance. There’s plenty to build on ahead of our Cup clash against our third senior opposition in less than a month, and I’m looking forward to seeing how we test ourselves once again.”

Match data

Goals: Palace - Ezeh 23; Spurs - Summers-Mee 4.

Yellow card: Spurs - Blue Bartlett-Antwi 56.

Referee: Lacey Armstrong.

Venue: Cray Wanderers.

Weather: Sunny with a cold breeze, 15 degrees.