Just as their male counterparts have experienced this season, the Eagles ladies endured several poor refereeing decisions away from home in a game that should have seen them share the points. Instead they suffered their second consecutive league defeat, away at Reading.
The only changes to the Eagles line up saw Kirsty Mitchell replace the injured Louise Duffy in the centre of midfield and Rachel Crossgell replaced Ellie Bracey on the wing for her first senior start.
Reading started the game the brighter of the two sides maintaining possession well without actually threathening the Palace goal.
The first chance fell after 10 minutes to Abigail Ingram who managed to beat the Reading off side trap, but placed her shot just over the bar. Reading then responded immediately and were desperately unlucky not to go ahead when they struck the cross bar from a corner.
The young Palace side managed to keep the home side at bay and went in to the half time break goalless. Reading, despite all their possession were finding it difficult to break down a disciplined Palace side.
The second half started in similar vein to that of the first, with the home side dominating possession without really creating any meaningful chances.
Palace were now frustrating their opponents and gaining good possession themselves. They created another clear cut opportunity through their strike force of Becky Merrit and Ingram, however a tame finish at the end resulted in an easy save for the Reading goalkeeper.
Reading themselves had another chance as they finally broke through a resilliant Palace defence,this time only to be denied by the in form Eagles keeper Sam Sharpe.
Then came the two most notable talking points in the game. The first was an indirect free-kick awarded to Palace after the Reading keeper picked up the ball via a back pass. The referee awarded Palace an indirect free-kick whilst the Reading keeper managed to kick the ball out of play and delay the free-kick.
The referee then moved the ball towards the edge of the box instead of centrally where the inident occured. With a poor angle to work with Merritt's free-kick was blocked off the goal line by the Reading wall.
Just when it seemed that the points would be shared a very harsh penalty was awarded to the home side in the last minute of play. Despite Sharpe's best efforts the penalty was converted and the final whistle went soon afterwards.
Manager Quinton Naidoo stated after the game that ''football can be a cruel game. Despite the result i am pleased with the girls' efforts today. They worked hard and limited a good Reading team to a only a few chances. I don't like to blame officials when we lose but all three today made life difficult for us.
"As i said last week, we are a young team and need to learn from every game. I have no doubt that the girls will show the desired character and bounce back next week''.
Crystal Palace Ladies will next be in action on Sunday when they welcome Fulham to Whyteleafe. Kick off is at 2pm.
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