Crystal Palace see off fellow strugglers Aston Villa and boost survival hopes

Crystal Palace gave their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Women’s Super League a massive boost with a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Aston Villa.

Aniek Nouwen, who is on loan from Chelsea, opened the scoring 33 minutes into her debut and Ashleigh Weerden curled home a superb second early in the second half.

Lucy Parker pulled one back for Villa to set up a nervous finish, but Palace sealed just their second win of the season in added time after a blunder from goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo left Katie Stengel with an open goal.

The win takes bottom side Palace to within a point of Villa, who had dominated the early stages without breaking the deadlock.

The home side were struggling to get out of their own half at times but took the lead against the run of play after their first shot on target from Stengel was turned around the post by D’Angelo.

From the resulting corner, Allyson Swaby flicked the ball on for Nouwen to direct a header towards the far corner and although Miri Taylor got the final touch with a desperate attempt to head clear, Nouwen was credited with the goal.

Palace could have doubled their lead just a minute into the second half as Clarissa Larisey pounced on some hesitancy in the Villa defence on the edge of the area but dragged her shot inches wide.

Weerden made no such mistake with a delightful left-footed finish from the edge of the area to make it 2-0 and Villa’s luck appeared to be out when Jordan Nobbs struck with the bar with a stunning long-range effort.

Parker did reduce the deficit in the 85th minute when Palace failed to clear a corner, but with seconds remaining D’Angelo won the ball just inside her own half, only to inexplicably send it backwards to Stengel who had the simple task of advancing before firing into an empty net.