The Eagles Soar Once Again
“We’re going back to where we deserve to be.”
In an exclusive interview, Crystal Palace manager Jo Potter and prolific midfielder Molly Sharpe reflect on an incredible WSL2 campaign as the Eagles sealed promotion on the final day. Victory would secure automatic promotion, and Palace delivered, thrashing Portsmouth 6–1 at the VBS Community Stadium.
Despite winning by a landslide, the score remained tied at 1–1 at half-time. Knowing only a win would do, Potter looked to her bench and brought on 18-year-old Chelsea loanee Lola Brown. Brown made an instant impact, setting up a goal within 90 seconds of coming on. She went on to win player of the match and netted a hat-trick of assists.
“I thought Lola could change the game, I wanted energy and quality. She came on and made an immediate impact. I’m really, really proud. I don’t think anyone in this group wanted it more than her today.” said Potter. Potter admitted nerves played a role early on: “Sometimes at this stage you can see nerves creeping in, but we’ve been in this position time and time again. It’s never on one person, the players came out and scored fantastic goals” she added.
With Palace scoring 5 goals within the opening 20 minutes of the second half, players such as Annabel Blanchard and Ashleigh Weerden also stepped up. Asked about her half-time message, Potter said: “We needed to be braver, build a little bit more, and exploit the gaps. It was there all game, we just didn’t use it. We worked on it all week, and it was the difference-maker in the end.”
From 11th to promotion...
Although they had aimed for automatic promotion at the start of this season, by November, Palace were sat in 11th place and only three points above the relegation zone. Most had written the Eagles’ chances for promotion off. “We’ve had a really tough start to the season, but we’ve gone under the radar, kept climbing, digging in, picking up big points, and we’ve put ourselves in this position. We thoroughly deserve it and I’m ecstatic for all the staff.” said Potter. “We’ve gone unnoticed and done it the hard way, but I think that’s helped us. We’ve proved a lot of people wrong this year.”
Potter thanked the Palace fans for their incredible support, saying,” They matter. Just something from the fans really, really pushes you, and it does. I love my experience. It gives you an extra five, 10% for really helping the players. They deserve this too, because they've been there throughout everything.” Molly Sharpe who scored Palace’s opening goal, said, “At the start of the season, it was tough times for us, because we were down, but I think Jo just acted with grace and pride the whole time and gave confidence to us players. And that's what we needed, and that's really spurred us through.”
“It was never about pressure, it was just let’s win today and move up the table.” “I remember I did an interview when we were 11th, and they said what's going to happen? We can still, like, make our third place at that point, because top-flight, that was the aim. But I think we always wanted automatic promotion. But I think, yeah, it is a lot sweeter now that we've come from right down there to make it to promotion.” Sharpe added.
Palace now look towards next season after finishing the WSL2 with an 8 game unbeaten streak and thrashing Portsmouth with their biggest win of the season.
