Blanchard: It was good to see it all come together

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Palace Women's November Player of the Month Annabel Blanchard spoke to the media after the Eagles beat Birmingham City 3-0 in the Barclays Women's Super League 2.

Molly-Mae Sharpe, Blanchard and Shanade Hopcroft all scored to give Palace a huge three points against second-place Birmingham.

Blanchard continued her fine November form into December, as she bagged her third goal of the season - a stunning free-kick on the 70th minute.

Talking through her goal, Blanchard said: "Well, I just said to AJ [Annabel Johnson] that I had missed a one-on-one with the keeper about five minutes before.

"So I thought: 'I probably should do something with this.' To be honest, we have a lot of people capable of taking free kicks, but they always say if anyone's feeling it in the moment - they should take it.

"I felt good, so I just wanted to take it."

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If we can keep clean sheets, we give ourselves a good platform to go and win games and get points.
—Annabel Blanchard

Speaking about the team's performance, she said: "It was a good performance from the team. I think we dug deep from minute one to minute 90. Obviously the result came with it, so it was good to see it all come together."

Manager Jo Potter was effusive in her praise of Palace's backline after the game, after they kept their first home clean sheet of the season.

Blanchard was also keen to highlight the performance of her teammates. She said: "It's something as a group we've definitely spoken about.

"If we can keep clean sheets, we give ourselves a good platform to go and win games and get points.

"So it's definitely something we've wanted to tighten up. And to be honest, the back line today and the two girls in defensive midfield were solid. They won their first balls, the second balls, so credit to them especially."

The 3-0 win against Birmingham marked consecutive wins in the league for the first time this season, and Palace's third win in a row in all competitions.

Reflecting on what this result means for the team going forward, Blanchard said: "Yeah, obviously, not everything's gone as we would have wanted it earlier on in the season.

"But at the same time, there's a lot of football to be played and the season's long. Anyone who's played in the second-tier knows that anything can change at any given time. So we just take it game by game.

"Today we had a good result, but next week or the week after, whenever the next game is, that's where our focus will turn to."

Blanchard and the team will now turn their attention to the Adobe Women's FA Cup on Sunday, 14th December, where they take on Lewes FC at the Dripping Pan.

You can get your tickets for that game by clicking the button below!

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