This weekend we are back at St Marys for the return fixture at home against Crystal Palace.
The match will be played on the 5th February 2023 and will kick off at 2pm. We hope to see
you all there supporting the girls and bringing the noise! Tickets are on sale now and can be
purchased via the ticketing part of the website, over the phone and also the box office at St
Marys.
Last time out
The last time we met palace was on their home turf at Selhurst Park but the home advantage
didn’t work out in their favour. We went into this match not expecting anything, it was our
third match in the championship and was off the back of a loss and a draw. Palace were league leaders when we played them, sitting pretty with 2 wins in 2 and full of confidence. This match we showed them how easy it was to carve them open and run at them with pace.
The match started with an early chance for Beth Lumsden but was denied, shortly followed by a 5th minute goal by Lexi Lloyd-Smith, slamming it into the back of the net first time of asking. Palace equalised in the injury time of the first half thanks to a goal from Coral Haines, the whistle blew and then the first half was over.
We came out very spritely in the second half and yet another early goal in the 47th minute took us in front. Lexi won the ball back in the Palace half and then positioned herself nicely on the edge of the box, took the strike and got the goal; the goal that went on to win ‘Goal Of The
Month’ for September! The match stayed at 2-1 right until the whistle blew and there we had it, our first 3 points in the Championship! I think this is where the clubs in the championship and fans knew that maybe we were going to be a bit of trouble for them this season. The swiftness of the goals, important movement and pace that bought this match alive. That cut back for lexis first goal? Beautiful! To play a full match defending a 2-1lead showed that Southampton weren’t just in the league to make numbers up, and showed we were here to make waves!
This was Hannah’s, a very dedicated Saints fan and podcast members, favourite match. As it
was a game of actual football; both teams wanted to play that way, rather than resorting to less sportsmanship tactics as well as it being not as physical.
Looking ahead
We head into the game on Sunday sitting nicely at 3rd in the table and only 4 points away from the top spot. Although, both Bristol and LCL have games in hand over us and we are the only team at the top who doesn’t have a game in hand. Bristol and LCL face each other midweek and will definitely be one to watch.
Coming off the back of a loss and a draw, can we see 3 points come our way Sunday? If history repeats itself then I’d say so. Fingers crossed for a great win and 3 points!
Palace are a team that although they have a lot of very good individual talent, haven’t seemed to gel well as a team as such. They currently sit at 7th in the table and have only received 15 points in 11 matches, this averages at 1.36 points per match. From the 11 matches that they have played they’ve won 5, drawn 0 and lost 6. They seem to play and have better form away from home, only losing 2 and winning 4, although they do love to concede a goal away from home, scoring 8 and conceding 7.
Palace are very devoid of confidence, in the last 3 matches (all competitions) that they have
played, they’ve conceded 11 goals and have only scored 2. Six of those goals were conceded in 2 away games, that gives me a little boost of confidence that we could see a good few goals for us on Sunday. The last league match that Palace played was against bottom of the table Coventry United, they lost this match 3-2. Their last general match was in the FA Cup in which Durham knocked them out after a 3-0 win.
Overall
Crystal Palace is a team that we’ve played once before this season when we beat them 2-1, 2 goals from Lexi and a good team performance secured us those 3 points.
Palace haven’t signed any players during the January transfer window so no new outburst are going to be underlying within the match. I think this match is going to be a well fought end to end match with both teams wanting to play the game fairly. Although with Palace having so
much individual talent as I’ve mentioned before but to me it sounds like Palace just do not gel
well as a team. Moving forward to Sunday, i feel as though Saints are going to bag a good few goals this match too, I’m going for a 2-0 win, fingers crossed!
Looking forward to seeing all you guys at the match Sunday, COYR
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee :- Aaron Ford
Assistant Referee :- Anastasiya Voloshchuk
Assistant Referee :- Peter Wilson
Fourth Official :- Steve Walsh
Observer :- Bob Desmond
Shannon Stephen
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