There was a moment for mutual respect after the final whistle between the West Ham head coach, Rehanne Skinner, and her Crystal Palace counterpart, Laura Kaminski, with the former expressing confidence in Palace’s chances of Women’s Super League survival, after her side came from two goals down to win 5-2.
In a league where as many points separate first and second as sixth and 12th, the interest lies towards the bottom and West Ham’s impressive comeback has calmed relegation talk, but Skinner thinks Palace will survive too.
“I don’t think they’ll go down, don’t ask me who I think will because I’m not going to answer that,” Skinner said. “But yeah, I don’t think they’ll go down.”
Kaminski was warmed by those words after seeing her side take a two‑goal lead inside 11 minutes before it began to fall apart. “Fair play, thanks to her for saying that,” she said.
“Do you know what? That’s a very respectful comment to make and it gives me a lot of confidence. For long periods of the game, I thought we played some lovely football, probably some of the best football I’ve seen us play. Unfortunately, we gave it away on the transition and that punished us.”
Goals from Viviane Asseyi, Seraina Piubel, Manuela Paví, Anouk Denton and Katrina Gorry for West Ham cancelled out the early lead Mille Gejl and Indiah-Paige Riley had given the visiting side at a bitterly cold and wind-lashed Victoria Road.
West Ham, Palace and Leicester had started the day level on five points and with the Midlands side enduring a 4-0 defeat against Manchester City there was an opportunity for one of the other relegation‑threatened teams to put a slither of daylight between themselves and bottom. That is how tight things are in the WSL, with only five points separating Tottenham in sixth, on 10 points, and Palace in 12th, on five, by the close of play.
For the fourth time in five games Palace took the lead. This time their opener came in the fifth minute. Kirsty Smith was dispossessed in the final third and Annabel Blanchard fed Gejl, who slotted the ball under the goalkeeper Kinga Szemik and in. By the 11th minute their cushion was doubled, as Riley cut on to her left and bobbled the ball into the bottom corner.
Before the meeting in Dagenham, Kaminski had said her side had been “working hard on composure and control”. Unfortunately for the manager, those efforts are yet to yield reward on the pitch. The fact that only Aston Villa had dropped more points, eight, from winning positions than Crystal Palace, seven, before the match with West Ham was a sign of things to come.
“We’ve scored two goals away from home and we’ve let the game slip,” she said afterwards. “We’ve worked so hard behind closed doors, we know it’s there, we’re not shying away from it, but it’s extremely hard to work on.”
West Ham pulled their first back through Asseyi, as the French forward side-footed in at the far post after Piubel pinged a cross in from the right. Piubel found the net herself for the equaliser, slotting past Shae Yanez at the near post. The comeback was complete by half‑time; Riko Ueki’s ball floated into the box and was shielded by Asseyi, allowing Paví to slot in.
Skinner’s side sealed the victory with less than 10 minutes remaining to kill any hopes of a point for the visiting side. Denton fired into the corner after a mazy run from just inside the opposition half, before Gorry added a fifth in stoppage time, turning in at the far post after the ball was diverted into her path.
West Ham’s future looks more comfortable for now, with their two league wins this season coming against fellow basement dwellers Palace and Leicester. Aston Villa await next weekend, before the winter break, for a chance to further express their WSL credentials.
“We need another window,” Skinner said. “We need to keep adding, because we will be competitive in this league if we do.”
Kaminski said: “As long as we’re in the mix. I know those wins are coming for us and the table will flip. We have to keep believing that. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
