Goals from Alexa Hunt on the hour mark and Carmaine Walker in the final minute finally saw off the Belles, but Boanas felt his side should have wrapped up the points well before then.

"I was pleased with the three points but not the performance," he said.

"We could have been three or four goals up in the first 20 minutes. It's been the same old story all season, we've been creating plenty of chances but not converting them. It's been an ongoing problem."

"Still, I can't complain. It was nice to get three points, particularly as we had three or four players who were playing reserve team football two weeks ago."

Despite the win sending Charlton to the top of the table, Boanas still feels Arsenal will be the team to beat this season.

"I said after last week's draw with Everton that the ball was firmly in their court and they're still in the driving seat.

"It's not over yet though and we'll keep plugging away. We'll try and win every single game and do well in the cup."

Everton, league leaders at the start of the day, surrendered their lofty position courtesy of a 0-0 draw at Fulham, leading Keith Marley to declare that their title aspirations could well be over.

Despite dominating most of the game, Everton couldn't break down a dogged Fulham defence as chances were few and far between.

"We didn't play to our full potential," Marley said.

"Fulham defended well and we dominated but just couldn't break them down.That was the title over for us today.

"But we'll keep going and try and finish as high as we can. Hopefully, we can finish second," he added.

Arsenal have now moved within striking distance of the top two as they leap-frogged Bristol Rovers with a 2-0 win over their rivals.

Ciara Grant's penalty opened the scoring for the home side on 50 minutes before Julie Fleeting made sure of victory with five minutes remaining.

Vic Akers' side now lie third, three points behind leaders Charlton but with three games in hand, and are well-placed to mount a title challenge.

At the other end of the table, Bristol City remained in trouble after a 1-0 home defeat to Leeds United.

Carren Burke scored the game's only goal after just three minutes to keep United in fifth place. Bristol remain tied with Doncaster at the bottom of the table but their superior goal difference may yet see them profit over the Belles and Liverpool.

Birmingham went goal-crazy at the Damson Park Stadium as they won their sixth game in a row and edged Liverpool closer to a relegation scrap.

Rachel Yankey's hat-trick set the Midlands side on the way to a 6-0 rout of the Merseysiders. She opened the scoring after only three minutes before doubling her and Birmingham's tally on 25 minutes. Amanda Barr then made it 3-0 two minutes later to effectively end the game as a contest.

Yankey duly completed her hat-trick 11 minutes into the second half before Ellen Maggs got in on the act with a brace to complete a miserable afternoon for Liverpool.

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