Three weeks after a last-gasp equaliser denied the Eagles three points away at Sunderland, Kaminski’s side travelled to Blackburn to face the then-league leaders – and came away with yet another impressive performance and result.
Goals from Shanade Hopcroft, her first for Palace; Polly Doran; Annabel Blanchard; and Molly Sharpe saw Palace move within a point of the Women’s Championship summit, having played a game fewer than the teams around them.
Boasting the division’s best ‘Goals For’ column – and second-best ‘Goals Against’ – Palace will be looking to take that kind of form into Sunday’s next home fixture against London City Lionesses on Sunday (15th October, 14:00 BST kick-off), now on sale.
Kaminski reflected: “I thought the players were fantastic [against Blackburn]. We had to make a few changes in the squad and the players who stepped up to the starting line-up, and the squad that ended up finishing the game, were absolutely fantastic as a collective.
“The work that we’d done in the week, they applied really, really well. We learned some harsh lessons against Sunderland and I was really pleased to see that everybody was on board with some corrections in terms of our performance and managing the game a bit better, especially towards the latter stages.
“It was a really positive response from the players and I’m really pleased with that clean sheet. It’s fantastic for confidence for the goalkeeper moving forwards. We’ve been after one for a while, and I’m just really pleased for the group to get that over the line.
“The players that came on and finished off the game were the cherry on the cake today in terms of what they offered in tempo and intensity, and also being defensively secure and making sure we’ve got pressure on the ball higher up the pitch so we could get regains.
“If you look at the shots on target, that’s lifted for us, which is another positive. In the last ten minutes of the game we had some shots as well and some fantastic set-pieces, and that proves the people coming on the pitch are ready and a real attacking threat for us.
“As the season goes on, they’re going to be absolutely fundamental – the rotation – and I look forward to seeing them in the future games to come.”
