Charlton Athletic reignited their FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division title challenge with an impressive 2-0 away victory over former leaders Cardiff City at the CCB Centre for Sporting Excellence.
Kit Graham grabbed both goals for the south Londoners as, first, she headed home Avilla Bergin’s pinpoint near-post cross on 13 minutes before slamming home Gemma Shepherd’s knockdown 13 minutes from time.
Graham was unfortunate not to have a hat-trick as she hit the post shortly before her opener and cracked the crossbar from range on 32 minutes.
So tight is it at the top of the table that Cardiff’s defeat sees them drop from first to fourth, with Charlton up to second, Coventry United climbing to third and Tottenham Hotspur now top of the pile.
Tottenham leapt to the summit with a confident 2-0 victory at home to Lewes – a Wendy Martin double doing the damage – while Coventry were also 2-0 winners, keeping their eighth consecutive clean sheet away to bottom-of-the-table Queen’s Park Rangers.
Elsewhere in the Southern Division, West Ham United shared a 1-1 draw with Portsmouth but C & K Basildon’s clash with Crystal Palace was postponed.
Meanwhile, in the WPL Northern Division, table-toppers Blackburn Rovers maintained their unbeaten league record this season with a routine 5-1 triumph over Middlesbrough.
Boro are second in the table but now six points behind the seemingly invincible Rovers after Ellie Stewart, Ella Toone, Faye McCoy, Lynda Shepherd and Natasha Fenton scored at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.
Bradford City are still third after their clash away to West Bromwich Albion was called off, while fourth-placed Stoke City edged past Derby County 2-1 – Natalie Hall saving a penalty five minutes from time to seal the win.
And finally, Huddersfield Town beat bottom-side Newcastle United 2-0, while Nottingham Forest and Leicester City played out a 2-2 draw in their East Midlands derby.
