Lionesses tamed by Addicks but stay second in Championship

By Football Reporter

First-half header from Mia Ross and an own goal from Harley Bennett secured Charlton a 2-0 win over London City Lionesses in the FA Women’s Championship.

London City Lionesses endured their third league defeat of the campaign, but remain in second position in the table.

Despite a nervous start from both sides, there were episodes of quality build up play, but they couldn’t register an effort on target.

Charlton’s Ella Rutherford struck a curling effort from 20-yards, but Lionesses goalkeeper Jessica Yanez pushed it away.

The resulting inswinging corner from Lois Roche found the head of Ross who powered a towering header into the top corner to give the home side the opening lead.

From a dangerous Amy Rodgers free-kick, Carly Girasoli’s attempt went out of play as a missed opportunity for the Lionesses

In the 30th minute, the home side came close to doubling their advantage, with Rutherford notching another speculative effort over the woodwork.

Karen Hills’ side started the second half in similar fashion.

In the 52nd minute, the visitors failed to deal with a long cross which resulted in Bennett’s header nestling into her own net, gifting Charlton their second goal of the game.

London City Lionesses piled on further pressure, with crosses from Atlanta Primus and Mollie Rouse that were all blocked away by the Charlton backline.

In the closing stages, Melissa Philips’ side created further opportunities to pull a goal back from Rodgers and Jamie-Lee Napier, whose efforts were inches wide of the post as Charlton held on to a valuable three points.

London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Philips’ said: “It was a tale of two halves and they scored from a set piece goal – we know that’s a focal point of ours and then obviously, we had a little mistake with an own goal but those things happen.

“We weren’t at our best and credit to Charlton - they came out and competed in the first half and made it very difficult on us.

“They hunted very well in their press and that’s something we knew about them. I think we can look at the decisions that we made and where we could have been more successful, but ultimately, we came out in the second half and we were able to make those adjustments and completely notify it which is being able to recognise it a little bit quicker in the moment and have a bit of versatility into our attacking play.

“By all means, this has not knocked our confidence. I think it’s a learning opportunity more than anything. There is a lot of positives to take away when you test yourselves and when you learn about yourselves and that’s what we’ll take going into the international break and go from there.”

Charlton manager Karen Hills said: “I thought the changes that we made across the park were the right changes for the right time. It’s about trying to keep players as fresh as we possibly could in the way we wanted to play. I thought all the players that we changed today did an exceptional job. “The timing of the first goal was perfect and I think the set-piece delivery was executed well. This league is sometimes all about set-pieces and fortunately, today we defended our box extremely well on their set-pieces because we knew that they were going to be strong. “That’s what we always try to do is to keep a clean sheet because you build a foundation and a base to let the forwards go and do what they can do, and I thought our defensive play was very good today. “When we talk about the second goal, it was an own goal from them, but we actually caused that to happen. Great pressure from Emma Follis to recover back and that was really pleasing to see the work rate off the ball for them to make the mistake and it was always to be tough to defend that lead because London City Lionesses are a good side. “We didn’t give away any silly free-kicks in around our areas and we took the emotion out of the game when it could have gone the other way.”

Charlton Athletic: (4-2-3-1): Eartha Cumings; Kiera Skeels, Bethan Roe, Anna Filbey, Lois Heuchan; Mia Ross, Lois Roche; Emma Follis, Ella Rutherford, Jess King; Elise Hughes

Substitutes: Megan Wynne for King 66, Hollie Olding for Follis 79

Substitutes not used: Elisha Sulola, Alicia Grimmond, Rachel Newborough

Goals: Ross 11, Harley Bennett (OG) 52

Bookings: Follis 74, Rutherford 87

London City Lionesses: (4-2-3-1): Jessica Yanez; Wiktoria Fronc, Harley Bennett, Carly Girasoli, Jamie-Lee Napier; Charlotte Fleming, Amy Rodgers; Karin Muya, Atlanta Primus, Lucy Fitzgerald; Annie Rossiter

Substitutes: Mollie Rouse for Fleming 60, Rianna Jarrett for Rossiter 60, Hannah Short for Fitzgerald 61, Brooke Nunn for Fronc 61

Substitutes not used: Anna Pedersen, Kenni Thompson, Grace Neville, Melis Mehmet, Lilly Pursey