Report & Highlights: Palace Women suffer late defeat at Villa Park

Summary:

• Blanchard returns to the side after a spell of absence, replacing Weerden
• Yañez saves brilliantly from a Nobbs effort from outside the box
• Mayling misses the target after a good pass from Grant
• Gejl receives the ball in space and finds Cato, who passes the ball into the bottom corner to open the scoring
• Patten equalises after finding space in the box
• Daly puts Villa ahead with a shot at the near post
• HT: Villa 2-1 Palace
• Nunes has an open net but blazes her shot over the bar
• Stengel gets contact on a Woodham cross but the header is too high
• A wonderful Weerden cross is volleyed in by Blanchard to get Palace level
• Salmon wins the game for Villa with a fierce strike into the roof of the net, one minute from time
• FT: Villa 3 - 2 Palace

Despite scoring twice, Palace narrowly lost to Aston Villa in a 3-2 defeat at Villa Park.

The Eagles took the lead in the 30th minute, with My Cato scoring her first goal for the club.

Mille Gejl picked up the ball in the Villa box and and managed to find Cato, who passed the ball into the bottom left corner to give Palace the lead.

Ten minutes later Villa found a response, with Anna Patten smashing an effort past Shae Yañez before Rachel Daly made it 2-1 before the half time whistle.

Palace battled for an equaliser for much of the second half, and managed to find one on 86 minutes.

Substitute Ashleigh Weerden came on and floated a great cross to the back post, which Annabel Blanchard volleyed home on her return to the starting lineup.

The Eagles were seconds away from another impressive draw away from home, but substitute Ebony Salmon scored in added time with a fierce strike into the roof of the net to win it for the hosts.

As things stand, this result sends Palace down to 12th place. Next up for Palace Women is the Women's League Cup against Charlton on the 24th November, which you can buy tickets for here.

Aston Villa: D'Angelo (GK), Mayling, Patten, Turner, Tomás, Staniforth, Nobbs (Kearns, 87), Grant (Robinson, 74), Daly, Hanson (Leon, 87), Nunes (Salmon, 74).

Subs not used: Kelly (GK), Maritz, Pacheco, Taylor, Dali.

Palace: Yañez (GK), Everett, Veje, Woodham, Green (Aspin, 46), Riley (Larkin, 66), Cato, Gejl (Weerden, 74), Potter, Blanchard, Stengel.

Subs not used: Majasaari, Gibbons, Pritchard, Arthur, Sharpe, Atkinson.