The next step: Palace Women targeting FA Cup history

Women

10 Feb 2024

Crystal Palace Women are targeting yet more club history when they line up to face Chelsea in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth-round this Sunday.

While the opposition is fierce – Emma Hayes' Chelsea team have finished as Women's Super League champions in each of the last four seasons, and have won the FA Cup in the last three – the Eagles can step out with great pride in their achievements so far this season.

The match, which kicks off at Kingsmeadow at 14:00 GMT, will be broadcast live on the FA Player and the @adobewomensfacup social channels (X/Twitter, Facebook and TikTok).

Laura Kaminski’s Palace – who enjoyed such a fine first half to their 2023/24 season – will be bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in the Women's team's history.

They have already won back-to-back games in the competition for the first time as a full-time professional outfit, with a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers in south London last month following a 6-0 win over Chatham Town in December.

Hayes herself said of Palace in her pre-match press conference: "‘We have to acknowledge that they [Palace] are flying high. They’re contenders to go up.

"I’ve watched them: they’re an organised team, they make it difficult out of possession, and they’re a threat going forward. They mean business."

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Founded in 1992 as Crystal Palace Ladies F.C., the Eagles turned semi-professional in 2018 and joined the Women’s Championship, starting to play as ‘Crystal Palace F.C.’ the following summer.

Given the frequent shifts in structure in the Women's FA Cup, which have seen Palace Women enter at different rounds throughout the years, the club will be looking to record its first-ever back-to-back wins in the FA Cup since that change in identity.

Indeed, Palace have, in fact, reached the fifth round on two occasions in the last five seasons: in 2020/21, when they were eliminated by titans Arsenal, having overcome London Bees in the fourth round; and in 2019/20, when Palace defeated Southampton Women’s FC but were felled by top-flight Brighton & Hove Albion.

Last season, the Eagles enjoyed a 5-1 third-round victory over Watford in south London, but suffered a fourth-round loss at Durham.

Our last fourth-round appearance prior to that was in 2018/19, when we entered the tournament at that stage, but were defeated by a Tottenham Hotspur side who won promotion to the Women’s Super League that season.

Before attaining semi-professional status, Palace Ladies did twice win back-to-back ties in the early rounds of the competition.

These came in 2013/14 (versus Maidenhead and Bedford) and 2014/15 (overcoming MK Dons and Ipswich Town) – but Palace saw their runs ended in the fourth and third round against Portsmouth and Reading respectively.

Can the new-look Palace Women – so impressive so far this season – achieve the truly remarkable, the unmistakably historic, at Kingsmeadow on Sunday?

You'll have to watch to find out!

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