Charlton women news - (2025-26 fixtures are on page 106)

Decent half. 

  That would have been a fantastic individual goal 

Superb Whitehouse save 

Conceded from another corner 

Weegie Addick said:

Our defending of corners is so poor - second time defender on post has failed to clear and been in Whitehouse’s way. 

It’s exactly why you don’t see players on the post in men’s games very often now, interesting it hasn’t transitioned into the women’s game too

Great from Bissell to set up an easy finish for Lockwood

Bissell hits the bar!

Four goals, Jeremy? Four? That's insane.

Today's performance had echoes of the Newcastle game, as we followed up a strong first-half performance with a weaker but still resilient second half. Durham aren't a bad side at all (just ask Birmingham): they played plenty of decent one-touch football, forced Sophie Whitehouse into several good saves, and became the first team to score twice against us in a league game this season, both goals coming from corners that we failed to deal with. But for the umpteenth time this season, we showed what we're made of and did enough to deserve the win.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Gillian Kenney in the starting eleven and she did well, playing a nice flick in the build-up to the opening goal, a wonderful strike from outside the area from the impressive Karin Muya (her slow start to the season feels like a long time ago now). Durham somehow squeezed in the equaliser from a corner despite Charlotte Newsham being right there at the near post, but we responded in lethal fashion before half-time with goals from Lucy Fitzgerald – a beautifully judged lob after she latched on to a poor header back towards the keeper – and Kenney, poking home after Durham failed to clear a ball into the box.

The visitors made changes at the break and came out of the blocks quickly in the second half. We reverted to type, failing to hold on to the ball for any length of time and inviting pressure, in part by bringing everyone back to defend corners and by being too casual at times. We had the odd chance – Kenney created one for herself only to skew the shot wide from a good position – but it was no great surprise when Durham pulled it back to 3-2 in the final 10 minutes. Knowing what they did to Birmingham last week I was fearing the worst, but then Emma Bissell got free down the left and squared it for fellow substitute Katie Lockwood to tap in and put the game to bed. There was still time for what should have been a fifth – only Bissell will know how she managed to hit the bar from close range.

Even though Newsham didn't have her best game today (she and Jodie Hutton both look exhausted, which is a slight worry), I'm glad she returned to right-back. Ellie Mason made her first start since the reverse fixture in September and played with great composure at left-back, and it was good to see Kiera Skeels come off the bench again as she comes back from injury. Lucia Lobato has done well in her absence but she's capable of the odd hare-brained moment, so I wonder if Skeels might come in for her before too long. For us to have weathered those two long-term absences as well as we have done is a real testament to the hard work done by Karen Hills, the staff and the players, but having Mason and Skeels back will make us even stronger as we approach the run-in.

Whatever criticisms we have of how we play, there's no doubt that this is a special group. Everyone in the squad is playing their part in different ways at different times, and we're getting closer and closer to achieving something absolutely incredible. Ipswich are up next on Wednesday.

COYA!