2-5 v Chelsea FC - 20 October 2024 - Away

Chelsea ran out 5-2 winners in an action-packed Barclays Women’s Super League encounter at Kingsmeadow on Sunday evening.

It turned out to be an eventful return for Amanda Nilden, who was back in the starting XI after recovering from an injury, as the defender grabbed us an equaliser midway through the first half, cancelling out Maika Hamano’s early opener, but went on to convert Guro Reiten’s corner into the back of her own net to reinstate the hosts lead on the stroke of half time.

We matched the reigning WSL champions for early parts of the second half, but the hosts put themselves in control with two goals in the space of five minutes – Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Sandy Baltimore finding the back of the net – and, although Eveliina Summanen cut the deficit with a lovely free-kick, Kaneryd rounded off the scoring in stoppage time to hand us our third defeat in the league heading into the international break.

Alongside the returning Nilden, fellow Sweden international Matilda Vinberg was handed her first start in the WSL as Robert Vilahamn made two changes from the side that faced Manchester United. Ella Morris returned to the matchday squad for the first time since our trip to Aston Villa in September and came on as a second half substitute to make her competitive debut for the Club, while Under-21s player Jhanaie Pierre was named among the substitutes bench.

Similar to our visit to Leigh Sports Village last weekend, we made a positive start under the lights in southwest London and Ashleigh Neville went close inside the first minute as Vinberg teed up the defender on the edge of the box, but her left-footed strike was deflected wide. Despite giving a strong account of ourselves in the opening stages, it was the hosts who broke the deadlock on 10 minutes as Kaneryd regained possession on right before advancing into the box to set up Hamano to fire home from a tight angle.

We responded well and tried to hit Chelsea on the counter-attack, Bethany England setting Jess Naz through but our number seven was brought down by Baltimore. But, shortly after that, we found an equaliser and, although it was slightly fortunate, Nilden will certainly take the credit to score her first competitive goal in our colours. The Sweden international delivered a cross from the left that looked routine for Hannah Hampton, but with Blues' goalkeeper back pedalling into the goal, she dropped the ball and the referee adjudged the ball to have bounced over the line.

Drew Spence went antagonising close with a curling effort from the edge of the box before, with just one minute left of normal time, the hosts reinstated their lead as Reiten’s corner was headed into her own net by Nilden. Spence forced Hampton into a strong save at her near post, while Reiten fired a low-drilled shot narrowly wide of the far post as both sides looked to find the back of the net in the early stages of the second half.

However, as the game entered the final 20 minutes, the home side extended their advantage and it was a moment of quality from Kaneryd as Millie Bright's cross picked out the forward inside the box and she guided a side-footed first time volley into the far corner. Chelsea were then awarded a penalty five minutes later after Clare Hunt penalised for a handball and, although Reiten struck the woodwork from the spot kick, Baltimore was on hand to fire home the rebound.

With the game entering the final stages, Summanen pulled a goal back for us, curling home a lovely free-kick from the edge of the box into the bottom right corner, but it was Kaneryd who completed the scoring for the home side as, in the first minute of stoppage time, she showed some good footwork on the byline before firing into the roof of the net from a tight angle to leave us without a win in three WSL games.