Crystal Palace manager Laura Kaminski spoke exclusively with The Halfway Line after the Eagles beat Newcastle United with two late goals to secure their spot in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals.
A close contest at Gander Green Lane was eventually put to bed by Palace, who scored through Ashleigh Weerden and Abbie Larkin in the 81st and 90+4th minute respectively.
The win sees Kaminski’s South London outfit make their way to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in their history – a feat the head coach described as “Amazing,” and called “A credit to the players.”
Newcastle were ‘resilient and gutsy’ praises Kaminski
Kaminski touched on the nature of a Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) versus Barclays Women’s Championship meeting, having experienced both sides of the coin. The head coach said: “I’ve been on the end of these. I’ve been a Championship side that’s gone away to play WSL sides, and you make yourself extremely hard to beat.”
Praising Newcastle’s performance, Kaminski continued “That resilience and gutsy performance, to get into a shape that’s difficult for us to be difficult to break down – there’s no distances, there’s no grass, we knew that we had to be patient from our end. We had to grind that down.
“Respect to Newcastle, they fought for a long period of the game. I thought we dealt with their counter attacks really well. First half they had some good chances, I thought they actually looked like the better side. And I said that at half-time, I wasn’t shy in saying that.”
Reflecting on a late showing but momentous result for her side, Kaminski went on “I felt like we didn’t really turn up in the first half, and we have to stop doing this, because it’s becoming a pattern that the first half can be a little bit sluggish and we do really well to come out in the second, so that’ll be the focus of our work from from now on.”
‘Support from the club’ helped make history says Kaminski
Kaminski highlighted the wider work that has gone into helping her squad make history. She said: “From a club perspective, I think it’s really important that the investment from the club and the support from the club has shone through to make that happen. So together, I think we’ve shown great progress and development.
Drawing on Palace’s time in the WSL thus far, the manager lamented “Sometimes our results this season have been so narrow that that’s [the progress] been overlooked and overshadowed, because at the end of the day, we’ve taken away no points and lost league games. That hasn’t quite shown the week by week progress that the group and the club are making with the women’s team.
“To make history, that gives us a huge boost now.”
Palace ‘know what we need to do’ declares Kaminski
Kaminski opened up about the Eagles’ progression since making the transition to the topflight at the start of the season, saying “We keep talking about it, and it’s hard when you’re in it,” she said.
The Palace boss expressed her opinion that the WSL needs expanding in order for newly promoted teams like Palace to be able to compete, saying “The WSL is such a small league, there’s not enough teams in there to be able to have a fighting chance of survival. We’re hanging on in there.”
Kaminski went on to assert her confidence in the squad as the latter half of the season progresses. The manager said: “Now the Christmas window is shut, we’ve made some great additions to our squad depth, and today proved that that’s going to help us in the weeks to come. We know what we need to do, and I think one win will really tip it for us.
“There’s no reason now, with the progress that this squad has shown, why we can’t kick on for the next half of the season and really stick with our ultimate goal, which is to firstly be in this competition for as long as possible, but most importantly and as a priority, to stay in the league.”
A new challenge awaits the Eagles amid their celebrations, as Kaminski’s side must now gear up to face Manchester United away in the WSL next Sunday.
