- Crystal Palace promoted back to WSL
- Jo Potter on the “special” achievement
- Club want to be “sustainable” in the WSL
Crystal Palace Women’s manager Jo Potter reflected on the incredible journey her side has made this season after securing automatic promotion back to the women’s top flight.
The Eagles were victorious on the final day of the season with a 6-1 win over relegated side Portsmouth, finishing second in the WSL2 with 44 points.
Palace have now officially been promoted back to the WSL immediately after being relegated 357 days ago. Potter told the club’s website:
“From my knowledge, I don’t think there’s been a team that’s been relegated and bounced back up immediately.
She praised the efforts of the team under her first year in charge:
“It takes so much, there’s a complete rebuild. You’re trying to build a whole new environment, a whole new structure. The players change, they come and go, and it’s a lot of work to get through.
“But you know what? We’ve stuck to it, we’ve dug in, we’ve put in the hours, and the players have shown their quality in the second-half.“
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Palace comeback in “unbelievable” league
The Eagles had a difficult start to the season which left them sat in 11th position in November after winning only two of their first nine matches.
The former England international reflected on the turnaround:
“We knew that we shouldn’t have been sat in 11th position, and it was only down to us. There’s so much to come away from. [People] think that the WSL 2 is what it used to be, and it’s not – this league is unbelievable. I think you could see it to the end to the season. Everybody’s in for it.
“It takes something special to be able to come out of this league immediately, and we knew with the opportunity of two automatic promotion spots that it might have been a stretch at Christmas.
Following the initial difficult run of form, the Eagles have been on an incredible run, winning 12 of their last 14 matches. This season they also made it to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and Subway Women’s League Cup. Yet a WSL return was a clear priority for Potter and the club:
“The end goal was clear from the start. [Chairman] Steve [Parish] said to us: ‘We want to get promoted, we want to get back up there, we want to be able to stay there and be sustainable playing in WSL.’ We all bought into it, we all believed it.
“It was a far stretch at one point, but personally for me, it was a big challenge that I took on. To come and do something that maybe has never been done before was really special. But I couldn’t have done it without every single one of them that was here.
READ MORE: Crystal Palace Women 6-1 Portsmouth: The Eagles Promoted Back to the WSL
