Sun 2 Oct: Crystal Palace (A) W 4-0

Having won the league by a country mile last season – collecting 60 points from a possible 63, they finished 14 points clear of runners-up Wimbledon – Crystal Palace Reds have decamped to a different league this season. Their sister team Crystal Palace Blues have stayed, dropped the colour from the end of their name… and failed to fulfil any of their first three fixtures. That’s a great shame for their likeable manager Matt Corry, but at least the Palace girls got a match this weekend against Teddington.

Although the game was played in an affable manner, the visitors were in no mood for charity, with several players looking to make the most of their chance. The starting front three were champing at the bit to take their chance: centre-forward Ale Fairn was making her first start of the season, flanked by Sadie Day and Millie MacEacharn, getting their just reward for excellence in training sessions.

With Millie Theobald away – the only absentee in a 15-strong matchday squad, which also meant her dad wasn’t on hand to take the photos – the ever-dependable Amy Hallett continued to display her remarkable versatility and footballing brain by slotting in at centre-back. As ever, Amy was exemplary and her reading of the game fully contributed to the resultant clean sheet. With Teddington otherwise unchanged, a strong bench of Ella, Ella, Emily and Emily – AKA Doddsy, Boz, Bash and Couls – awaited their turn; all would be involved, and all would have a major say in the game.

The starters soon set about their hosts, creating chances they were almost too polite to take. Firstly, Liz Kriebel and Giulia Clini didn’t so much get in each other’s way as mutually abdicate responsibility for shooting, allowing a surprised Palace defender to nip in and clear her lines.

Then Giulia wriggled past a couple of players and was brought down right on the forward edge of the box. While Palace players hung back, perhaps thinking it was a penalty, Teddington calmly waited for them to file back into position before Giulia lifted the shot towards the top corner; the goalkeeper’s parry was met by Ale, but she could only scoop the ball over the bar. (She later admitted “I can’t believe I missed that,” but if she keeps working hard, she will get more chances to add to her 25 Teddington goals.)

Some match action (I never said I was David Bailey)

Although the visitors were firmly in control, Palace did start to threaten on occasion: one run down the left ended in a cross acrobatically cleared from the six-yard box by Carla Novakovic, with Amy ably assisting.

But most of the action was up the other end. In the 11th minute Sadie put her body on the line to dispossess a defender and force the goalkeeper into a save, the winger suffering a blow to the hip which would eventually curtail her afternoon.

Even when they seemed somewhat shot-shy, Teddington were creating. In command of the No.10 zone despite feeling under the weather, Giulia had the ability to terrify the defence but sometimes sought the long route round; drifting rather than driving, she fed Liz wide on the right in what might have been a blind alley until a brilliant double-touch skill from the American left the full-back for dead. A superbly accurate cross to the back post found Macca, whose technically excellent shot on the half-volley was well saved by a goalkeeper.

On 19 minutes, the ailing Giulia and limping Sadie were replaced by a pair of Emilys, Couls and Bash – and the two were immediately involved in a goal. Sent haring down the inside-right channel by an excellent through-ball, Em C eventually won the foot-race and confidently finished past the goalkeeper into the far side of the net. That was pleasing for Em, who had been politely disappointed to be “benched” with her grandparents watching – but she didn’t hang about once she joined the fray.

Enjoying the freedom afforded to the free position behind the striker, Em turned inside a defender on the left-hand corner of the box and tried a snapshot which worried the goalkeeper; she also roamed down the right and sent a looping cross toward Ale, who fired just wide of the near post. And the centre-forward was quickly back in the action, meatily meeting Bash’s cross with a solid header which found its way back to Bash, who again found Ale for a shot well saved.

Doddsy, awaiting the call to action

That was about the end of it for Ale, who had jarred her problematic back in the course of duty and made way for Doddsy with five minutes to go. By then Emily was causing Palace all sorts of trouble: first reaching a great ball over the top from Liz, nicking it past the onrushing goalkeeper and watching it hit the post; then turning provider with a diagonal for Bash to outmuscle the defender and shoot first-time, only for the goalkeeper to save it again.

At half-time, Bash switched to the left as Boz came on for Macca, and within two minutes the pair combined well to create the second goal. The home side can count themselves unlucky that they lost possession in midfield when the ball bounced unkindly off a Palace heel, but from there it was all Teddington technical solidity. Bash swooped on the loose ball and swept it wide to Boz, who laid through an excellent ball for Em C to calmly finish. It was her 50th TAFC goal, putting her just two behind the all-time club top scorer Phoebe Head, whose record must surely tumble soon.

From there Teddington controlled the second half; on the one occasion Palace broke through the visitors’ backline, the underemployed goalkeeper Ruby Rudkin was alertly off her line to worry the striker and negate the danger.

Shortly after that isolated threat, the visitors sealed the victory with their third goal just before the hour. Em C won the ball in midfield and bowled a vertical between defenders, Boz outmuscling Palace to lash past the goalkeeper. Something of a milestone for Boz, too: her 10th for the club takes her level with Ella Waldron and past the opponents who have combined to provide nine own-goals.

Within five minutes, 3-0 became 4-0 with what wasn’t exactly a memorable goal, but they all count. Something of an up-and-under caused all manner of fun in the Palace box – Boz almost forced it home with her face, which presumably wasn’t quite the plan, before Doddsy stopped the nonsense by hammering home from seven yards. Again, it was a landmark for the centre-forward, her 20th for the club; she’s started the season in promising form and if she throws her weight around a bit more up front, she may very quickly get to 30 and beyond.

By now, Giulia had recovered enough to be kicking a ball around on the sidelines, so she was given the last 16 minutes to do something rather more productive, Bash making way and Em C reverting to the left. And Giulia almost made it five late on, forcing the goalkeeper into a sprawling save after being set up intelligently by the alert Boz.

For all the goals – and milestones – it’s a team game, and the girls at the back can take credit for competently keeping their second clean sheet in three games, eliminating the concentration errors that had cost them against Fleet.

Throughout the game, Anna Kauffmann dug back well with her left-wing foe; Hannah Hutchison comfortably dealt with any trouble in the middle (and confidently sent a few free-kicks into the danger zone); and Saskia Brewster kept the right-winger quieter than a church mouse with laryngitis. And on the one occasion the flanker got past her, after 69 frustrating minutes, across zoomed Amy to brilliantly cover her mate and remove the danger.

The team’s youngest player, Amy has represented Teddington excellently as a centre-forward, winger, midfielder, holding midfielder, full-back and now centre-back. The latter was probably only as a stop-gap but it is to her enormous credit that she neither complains nor struggles when given a new position.

Like several of her flexible friends, Amy is given different roles by her trusting coaches, who want to equip their girls with the ability to play in various positions. Some sides simply place the big girls at the back and tell them to hoof it forward to the quick girls at the front. That’s not the way with Teddington, who want to give their players a lifelong skill-set rather than capitalise on fleeting physical superiority.

It’s a pleasant byproduct of that when players can simply slot into different roles. With six minutes to go, Amy felt a twinge in her ankle and was withdrawn; her place in the back-line was taken by Carla, another who has played in every outfield position, with Macca coming on for some experience in the holding role.

The girls may need that flexibility and diligence in their next fixture. Averaging north of six goals per game, AFC Wimbledon are five points clear of Teddington. For that gap to be reduced will require diligent defence, incisive attack and a whole load of hard work. It’s to Teddington’s credit that it’s a viable possibility.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Hannah Hutchison, Amy Hallett, Saskia Brewster, Liz Kriebel, Carla Novakovic, Sadie Day, Giulia Clini, Millie MacEacharn, Ale Fairn. Subs Emily Coulson (2), Emily Bashford, Ella Dodd (1), Ella Bothamley (1).