Eagles women crash at home to newly-promoted Southampton 1-2

Crystal Palace 1 Southampton 2

Newcomers Southampton earned their first Barclays Women’s Championship win with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, this afternoon. Saints took an early lead through Lexi Lloyd-Smith before Coral Haines earned a deserved goal in the first minute of injury time to make it all square at the break. Lloyd-Smith bagged a brace just after the restart with both goalkeepers put to work as Palace tried and failed to maintain their unbeaten run. Two of Southampton’s summer signings almost put the visitors ahead in the third minute, Katie Wilkinson setting up Beth Lumsden in the box, but Fran Kitching in the Palace goal was an equal match to the shot. Lumsden would still be involved in the opener, finding Lloyd-Smith in the right-hand corner of the six-yard box to smash home in the fifth minute. Palace’s search for a response was led principally by Haines, skimming the top of the crossbar on 12 minutes before finding the back of the net midway through the half from an offside position. On the stroke of half-time, Palace’s pressure told and Haines got her reward, latching on to the rebound from a free-kick to level the scores going into the break. Lloyd-Smith got her second goal on her first start for the Saints immediately after the break, sliding a low ball past the keeper to move Southampton back in front. Both sides traded chances as Wilkinson rattled the crossbar for Southampton before Kayla Rendell remained calm in the visitors' goal in the midst of a goalmouth scramble as the Saints held on for all three points.

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