Crystal Palace Ladies
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Crystal Palace Ladies
FOOTBALL CLUB
Crystal Palace Ladies FC is targeting a place in the Super League over
the coming years and the club is working hard to make sure they
achieve their goal. Football Focus Magazine recently caught up with
their General Manager Paula Johnson to find out more.
Involvement
Paula told us, “This is my second
season with CPLFC. I started at the
beginning of the 2017/18 season as
Club Secretary. My daughter played for
the club in the U14 Academy. It was a
way of me giving something back to the
community and in the process helping
girls football. To be fair, I hadn’t really
come across or had any involvement
with football until my daughter started
playing but once I started I was hooked
and wanted to do more.”
The Role
“The most challenging aspect of my
role is trying to keep abreast of all the
rules and regulations, of all aspects of
the game from the youth teams to the
seniors. We run a Youth Development
Programme for U9s to U18s as well as
the Senior Teams. It’s quite a daunting
task at first.
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However, I have been lucky in the
fact that CPLFC has a very supportive
Chairman and this being our first
Season in the Women’s Championship,
everyone I have come across from the
Women’s FA side and other GMs have
also offered support. Everyone has been
in the same boat at one point or another.
The most rewarding aspect, I
suppose comes in two parts - I love a
match day! Seeing it all come together
from working with the Team/Manager,
Fans and of course the mascots who
come on the day. To see the work finally
come together at 2pm Kick off Sunday
gives me a real sense of pride.”
Atmosphere
“The general mood is good at the
moment. The girls and coaching team are
really putting in the hours. We always
knew it would be a tough season and
coming into the League six weeks late
meant we would always play catch up,
but the girls know what is expected of
them and they are stepping up. We had
a bit of bad luck towards the end of last
year with injury after injury but a couple
of new signings have boosted the team
and we are looking forward to coming
strong in the latter part of the season.”
Present
“As I said before it has been tough
coming in late and all the injuries before
Christmas, but I think in the face of
adversity the girls have stayed strong
and motivated. We could have been
better but then you can always criticise in
hindsight, but you have to deal with the
here and now and deal with what you
are dealt with. The future is what matters
now. In 2019 we want to consolidate,
avoid relegation and then regroup over
the summer to take stock and plan for
the next season. It’s all exciting stuff.”