- Crystal Palace Women finish season in style
- Highlights of Jo Potters first season
- Stand out players
Crystal Palace women have now concluded their season on a high after their 6-1 victory over Portsmouth, earning promotion to the Women’s Super League. The Eagles will rejoin the Women’s top flight after just 361 days since their last game in the WSL, their debut season.
Jo Potter’s first season in charge started with a difficult run of form, with the promotion dreams appearing doubtful. Yet they turned it around in impressive style with 12 wins in 14 league matches to finish second with 44 points.
Palace also managed to make it to the quarter-final of the FA Cup for the second time, and the quarter-final of the Subway Women’s League Cup for the first time.
Palace’s Best Games of 2025-26
While such an incredible run of form to end the season is difficult to select from, here are three of Palace’s top matches of the season:
Crystal Palace 6 – 1 Portsmouth
It was all to play for in Palace’s last game of the season, which was their highest goal-scoring match in 25/26. The game ended in celebrations as the Eagles’ return to the WSL was solidified, after six goals helped Palace come back from behind.
Crystal Palace 3-2 Charlton
With end-to-end excitement, the Eagles came back from 1-0 down to defeat local rivals and the then league leaders, with goals from Hayley Ladd, Kirsty Howat and Abbie Larkin. The atmosphere was strong as this match was hosted at Selhurst Park with strong fans from both teams.
Crystal Palace 3-0 Birmingham City
Back in December, goals from Molly Sharpe, Annabel Blanchard, and Shanade Hopcroft against Birmingham City gave a clear sign that Palace’s fortunes had changed. The clean sheet kept at home helped Palace move back into the top five in the table.
Eagles’ Stand Out Players
Ashleigh Weerden has been a great attacking threat this season, beating the WSL2 assists record with 10 assists, and placing third in goals scored for the Eagles.
| Player: | Goals Scored: |
| Abbie Larkin | 8 |
| Kirsty Howat | 8 |
| Ashleigh Weerden | 7 |
| Annabel Blanchard | 6 |
Attacker Annabel Blanchard and Captain Aimee Everett both hit 100 appearances this season, with both playing crucial roles within the squad.
Kirsty Howat has also been a powerful force on the attack with the joint-most goals scored, after joining the club at the beginning of the season from Rangers.
‘Proved People Wrong’ – Potter Says
Potter congratulated her players after earning promotion to the WSL. She said after the win over Portsmouth:
“We thoroughly deserve it and I’m ecstatic for all the staff. We’ve gone unnoticed and done it the hard way, but I think that’s helped us. We’ve proved a lot of people wrong this year.”
Potter also pointed out how difficult it is to return to the top-flight at the first time of asking:
“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.“
Now that the Eagles are back where they belong, Potter will be eager to ensure they stay there. It’s been a season to remember and from all of us at Read Crystal Palace we congratulate the team.
