No points target set for Crystal Palace survival says Kaminski | OneFootball

Crystal Palace head coach Laura Kaminski says that she has not set her side a points target for Barclays Women’s Super League survival.

The Eagles are currently bottom of the table on six points. Crystal Palace are three points adrift of 11th-placed Leicester City with nine games to play.

Crystal Palace have work to do in the battle for survival but head coach Kaminski says that she has opted against setting her side a points target to remain in the top tier.

“The one stat that I don’t pay attention to is the points needed to survive because each year in the WSL it’s very different,” Kaminski said when speaking in a Crystal Palace press conference. “We have the same points now as last year’s bottom club and the table looked very different last year at this point. Is there any correlation between that? I don’t think so; the fixtures change, squads change, we are a different club.

“It’s the one stat that I don’t get involved in; we could need 10 points, we could need 16, I don’t know what that’s going to be. For me, if I looked at where we would get those points from, I think it writes off my team from getting points from any game. I really believe that we can get points from every single game, we believe that and that’s what we work hard for and strive to do. That needs to be the focus rather than getting bogged down with the long-term, end goal mathematics.”

Crystal Palace come up against the Barclays Women’s Super League’s best defence this weekend when they travel to the Leigh Sports Village to face Manchester United. Kaminski acknowledges the quality of the opposition but knows that her side could cause an upset on their day.

She said “They certainly don’t concede many and they’re on a very good run at the moment. They’re doing really well with Marc [Skinner] at the helm. They’ve rode away from some external noise and have risen to the top in terms of that consistency. They have got into a flow but that can’t last forever. We are going to be the ones to try and stop that and on the day, try and make it really challenging for them.”

After struggling to get results over the line earlier in the season, Crystal Palace have secured good results with late goals in their last two matches. Kaminski believes that her side are now at the point where they can really push on.

She said “The way that we have come on has been phenomenal; to see the growth in the group, but we haven’t got a lot from it. We have been really unlucky to come away from some games with nothing.

“If you look at the first game against Tottenham Hotspur to the last game where we were pushing them to the end and scoring two goals, it just shows the phenomenal progress that this group has made.

“Bring on the second half of the season because I really feel that the group are starting to gel, starting to kick on. They understand the level and the margins. We’ve got depth on the bench now, so I think the second half of the season will look very different to the first.”

Crystal Palace’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Manchester United kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon.