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Sunday [15 October] was a difficult day out for London City Lionesses, who were defeated 6-1 by Crystal Palace in the Barclays Women’s Championship at the VBS Community Stadium.
The Pride entered the break behind by one, with Molly Sharpe and Shanade Hopcroft firing Laura Kaminski’s side into what proved to be an unassailable lead.
Crystal Palace ran up the score after the restart, headlined by Annabelle Blanchard's 18-minute to start the second period.
Anna Filbey also inked her name on the scoresheet, making amends for the first-half own goal that briefly levelled the game for London City.
“It’s a shame because we were the better team in the first-half,” said Carolina Morace of her side’s defeat, “but we conceded the second goal just before half-time, which we could have prevented by pressing the ball better, and it changed the match.
“In the second-half, we conceded free-kicks that were avoidable. After the match, the coach of the other team came to me and said that they struggled a lot in the first-half – which is what I told the players at half-time.
“It’s just that we didn’t take our opportunities to score and that caused us a lot of problems. Crystal Palace scored twice from their first two shots and it wasn’t because our goalkeeper didn’t do her job. It is not a good feeling for us because we showed in the first-half that we could play at the same level as a team at the top of the table.”
The Pride return to Princes Park next Sunday [22 October], hosting table-topping Southampton in a match which carries ramifications at both ends of the division.