Chatham Town Women bowed out of the Adobe FA Cup as Championship side Crystal Palace Women finally overcame them at Sutton’s Gander Green Lane.
The home side are towards the top of the Championship and playing for a place in the Super League were on top from the start, but only three goals in the last eight minutes gave the scoreline a very flattering look as Keith Boanas’ side showed yet more improvement as they go into 2024 concentrating on maintaining their own position in the South Division of the National League.
Played on a very heavy pitch – Sutton’s League Two game with Harrogate Town had been rained off the day before – the home side adapted quickest and were ahead through an early goal from Molly Sharpe, before heartbreak for the Chats as Elise Hughes added a second on the stroke of half time.
And when Hughes netted her second and Palace’s third just past the hour mark, the work that the Chats had put in started to unravel and three in the last eight and a half minutes – with Hughes completing her hat-trick and additional goals from Kiera Barry and Annabel Blanchard – the scoreline bore a tough read for the Chats and the fans who followed them round the M25.
When Sharpe curled home inside the first ten minutes, the writing seemed to be on the wall, but whilst the visitors struggled to find room going forward, the defence just about held out. Shande Hopcroft fried over Cara Davies’ bar, before the Chats keeper raced out of her box to clear from Hughes.
Davies was then brave (with a combination with Lennie Priest) to keep out a dangerous Sharpe ball in from the left and whilst the visitors were second best, they still had their moments, none more so when Elli Jeffkins’ teasing free kick bounced through the Palace box with no white shirt able to connect.
The home side grabbed a second on the stroke of half time when Hughes headed home Sharpe’s knock back and the job at hand suddenly became a lot bigger.
The Chats boss made a couple of changes at the break as well as changing formation and for a long while, the room the home side enjoyed in the first half disappeared.
Hughes grabbed a third just past the hour as the ball ricocheted straight to her after the defence had made another great stop and for a while it looked as if the Chats would return home with a deserved “respectable” scoreline for their amazing efforts.
But sadly, they ran out of steam and the home side’s fitness came to the fore in the final stages.
Barry drilled home the fourth before Hughes grabbed the match ball as she converted a great and cross from Isabella Sibley and then a stretching Blanchard fired into the top corner as Hughes turned provider in the final minute.
The Chats returned to Medway well beaten but not embarrassed and continued to show the improvement and fight under their new boss that surely gives them hope to move away from the lower reaches of the National League South when the season resumes in January.
CRYSTAL PALACE WOMEN – Lambourne, Gibbons (Sibley), Arthur, Everett, Sharpe (Watson), Hughes, Potter, Reilly, Nolan, Dennis (Barry), Hopcroft (Blanchard).
Subs not used – Johnson, Bailey-Gayle, Negri, Cataldo, Wright.
CHATHAM TOWN WOMEN – Davies, Poole (Auguste), Coombes (Pearch), Priest, Hynes (Haynes), Jeffkins, Pepper, Sharp, Leitch (Jackson), Grant, Nicholls (Harney).
Subs not used – Madamombe, Espinosa, Perkins, Keegan.
REFEREE – Mr Butcher.