‘They thoroughly deserved that’ – Hills delighted with Charlton Athletic’s victory at Durham | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic head coach Karen Hills expressed her delight after her side recorded a 2-1 victory over Durham at Maiden Castle on Sunday afternoon.

Kayleigh Barton and Atlanta Primus got the goals as The Addicks made a winning start to 2025 in the Barclays Women’s Championship.

Durham is known to be one of the toughest places to go and get a result and Charlton Athletic boss Hills was naturally thrilled to see her side get the job done.

“Durham are a good side, we know what they’re about and we know what type of game it is going to be,” Hills said when speaking to WSL Full-Time. “Coming up here is always a tough place to come and in the last three seasons, we’ve come up here and played really well.

“We’ve stuck to our game plan and had to ride out some really difficult moments, especially in that first 20 minutes and in the second half, but I thought our girls were fantastic.

“The performances against Chelsea, Birmingham and Aston Villa were there but we just couldn’t win those games. Today, I thought they thoroughly deserved that and I’m super-proud of every single one of them, they all put a shift in.

“Durham is such a hard place to go to get anything. To score two good goals the way we did [was pleasing], I was disappointed that we conceded at the death but we will take that and take the three points back to London.”

Charlton Athletic are known for keeping things tight at the back and Hills was pleased with how her side defended for the vast majority of the game at Maiden Castle.

She said “The challenge for the players is that if we are going to concede a goal, it’s about how we don’t concede another one and we’ve got to have pride in that. Today, we had pride for 96 minutes to keep our clean sheet and I thought we did that really well.

“It was a fantastic corner that came in and it’s always difficult to deal with that but overall, we are really pleased with how we seem to be working a little more efficiently at the back. There’s a lot more confidence at the back and they’re working hard to try and keep clean sheets, they work hard in training.

“It’s about pride. You want forwards to score goals, midfielders to create but then also, I thought the midfielders were really supportive in helping us defend today. Overall, it was a huge team effort.”

As many as eight different clubs could win this season’s Barclays Women’s Championship. Charlton Athletic are playing catch up in the race for pole position and Hills highlighted the importance of the win at Durham.

She said “We’ve not seen this before [in the Championship] and that’s what makes it exciting; every game that you play, you have to have your ‘A Game’ on. The games are so tight.

“You have to keep believing in what you’re doing, keep focusing on ourselves because every week is going to be different, it’s going to change. We just keep focusing on us.

“What I’m pleased about is that we’ve played two WSL sides in Chelsea and Aston Villa then played Birmingham in the mix of that as well and our performances have been really good. We’ve just come up short a little bit, Birmingham we drew 0-0. We’ve then come up here to play a very good side and got a win which keeps us in the mix. All we want to do is stay with the pack and see what happens. If we keep playing like that, it’s going to be a good second half of the season.”

Charlton Athletic are next in action on Sunday afternoon when they play host to Sheffield United at The Valley.