---
title: "Crystal Palace Women Face Points Deduction or Replay Over WSL Substitution Blunder Against Everton"
canonical: "https://readcrystalpalace.com/2026/09/07/crystal-palace-women-wsl-investigation-substitution-blunder-everton/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Naz Yusuf"
section: "Crystal Palace News"
published: "2026-09-07T14:03:50Z"
modified: "2026-10-10T21:44:11Z"
---

# Crystal Palace Women Face Points Deduction or Replay Over WSL Substitution Blunder Against Everton

Did Crystal Palace just hand their historic first WSL win back on a technicality?

The Eagles celebrated a famous 1-0 victory over Everton at the VBS Community Stadium on Sunday, thanks to Lexi Lloyd-Smith’s sharp thirty-fourth-minute strike.

However, euphoria quickly turned into anxiety across south London when news broke that the Women’s Super League launched an immediate investigation into the club. The offence? A costly administrative blunder regarding substitution windows that now threatens to strip Palace of their hard-earned points or force a complete replay.

## The Submissions Blunder That Triggered an Investigation

While WSL managers possess the right to make up to five substitutions during a match, strict league regulations limit those changes to a maximum of three separate stoppages, excluding half-time.

Manager Jo Potter utilized her bench to secure the victory, introducing Abbie Larkin, Ashleigh Weerden, Allyson Swaby, and Kirsty Howat across four distinct intervals. The Eagles made changes in the sixty-second, eighty-third, and ninetieth minutes, before sending Howat onto the pitch during a lengthy stoppage-time period in the ninety-seventh minute.

League officials confirmed that Palace breached competition rules by using four separate substitution opportunities. Consequently, the governing body holds the power to dock points or order a replay, casting an immediate shadow over the club’s top-flight campaign. To compound the officiating chaos surrounding the fixture, reports indicate that the match officials will not receive appointments for next weekend’s WSL and WSL 2 fixtures.

## Everton Left Seething After Performance Failure

Everton manager Scott Phelan pulled no punches in his post-match assessment, expressing utter dismay at his side’s lack of execution and admitting that the Toffees failed to match expectations.

[Speaking to evertontv, Phelan](https://royalbluemersey.sbnation.com/everton-women-ladies-team-womens-super-league-wsl-news-latest/83118/crystal-palace-1-0-everton-wsl-match-report-blues-edged-out-in-season-opener)did not hide his frustration:

**”Not a performance we expected. I think there was a bit of fear in our game and I don’t know where that has come from.**

**”That was one thing I did not expect from the team, we’ve asked them to do certain things and, without any extra pressure, to just go and play the game, enjoy the game, and execute the game plan, which we didn’t do often enough with the ball.”**

## A Bizarre Weekend Across the Club

Adding to a truly surreal 24 hours for the Eagles, the women’s academy team endured an afternoon to forget. Their fixture against AFC Wimbledon ended in abandonment after Palace found themselves reduced to a bare-bones squad of just six players on the pitch.

For the senior team, the immediate future hangs in the balance. Palace fans await the disciplinary verdict with bated breath, hoping that a brilliant opening-day victory on the pitch does not vanish due to a costly technical error on the bench.