Crystal Palace Women will today celebrate promotion to the Women’s Super League for the first time in their 32-year history.
A fifth-placed finish last season followed fourth in 2021-22 as they sought to become promotion challengers.
Palace have risen through the amateur leagues, turned semi-professional in 2018, and have consolidated in the Championship. They have made steady progress during six seasons in the second tier, having finished second-bottom in 2018-19. Now, come full time against Sunderland on the final day at Selhurst Park, they will put themselves among the elite after “rocketing” to the top.
Promotion was effectively sealed with a 2-0 victory over Lewes last weekend, which left them three points and 22 goals clear of Charlton Athletic with a game remaining, leaving them free to celebrate their achievement.
“It’d be one of the best days of my life,” head coach Laura Kaminski tells The Athletic. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re the assistant or the manager, the feeling is the same and it doesn’t come around often, so I need to absorb it and enjoy it with the players and staff because they deserve it.
“We recruited players we know can score with variety. That’s that’s one thing. There have been goalscorers from multiple areas, which is key in terms of variety in the final third and it just shows the strength in depth in the squad.
“Playing exciting football shows the amount of fans we’ve got this year are a product of the performances on the pitch, that’s something we are proud of.
“I didn’t want to put any pressure on the players. My only pressure has always been to play and perform. The players have bought into that ideology this year and that’s what has motivated and driven the group — to perform well.”
“I just want to say how proud I am of all the players and all the staff.” 🫶
Watch Laura Kaminski’s full pre-match press conference below ⤵️#CPFC
— Crystal Palace F.C. Women (@cpfc_w) April 26, 2024
Palace’s home fixtures have mostly taken place at Sutton United’s VBS Community Stadium, but Selhurst Park has hosted several games, drawing hefty crowds.
A record 5,500 witnessed a 3-0 victory over Watford in March — that is expected to be eclipsed on Sunday. With 55 goals — 16 more than any other side in the competition — there has been an unwavering commitment to attacking football.
“You want to watch interesting and exciting football. That’s what people want to see and we need the players to be able to do that. It fills me with an immense feeling of pride that people want to turn up to watch these fantastic players.”
The achievement is made greater when you consider Kaminski was only appointed in July, joining from Charlton. Her previous experience extended only to assistant head coach roles. While nothing in the past can beat this, she says, it is not her first experience of reaching the top flight after she gained promotion with Tottenham Hotspur in 2018-19 as assistant to Karen Hills.
Two months before Kaminski’s appointment, Palace hired their first head of women’s football, Grace Williams, on whom Kaminski lavishes praise. It has been a season of transition, which has produced success quicker than expected. In the FA Cup, they pushed Emma Hayes’ Chelsea close during a 1-0 fifth-round defeat, perhaps offering a source of optimism for next season’s WSL campaign.
Palace put up a good fight against Chelsea in the FA Cup (Warren Little/Getty Images)
Despite the overhaul, relationships between staff and players took little time to form and is a source of personal pride for Kaminski, who spent five years in charge of England Under-19s, and something on which she places great emphasis when reflecting on the season.
“For a long period, we were second or third and then I was thinking would that motivation change if they were at the top, but they seem to have the same mentality as me as we never really spoke about things like that.
“All we spoke about was the hunger and dedication to getting better week-in, week-out and whatever coaching theme I had for the week, both in and out of possession, they were absolutely dedicated to delivering the game plan.
“The coaching staff have been fantastic and added value, but the players bought into that consistently. I’m a player developer. I look at a player and appreciate the attributes they can add to the squad. But first and foremost, it’s about how I can make them better, how I can make them achieve.
“That is why I get out of bed every day — to make the team tick, but also individually I know they want to be better. They’ve got an extreme dedication to self-development. I want to play a big part in that and be a sounding board for those players who want to improve and find ways that help them get better.
“There’s always a high level of intrinsic motivation to improve and for me to be part of that alongside it.”
Kaminski has created a strong team ethic between staff and players (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
As the men’s team celebrate securing their 12th consecutive season in the Premier League and the £30million redeveloped academy continues to thrive at the top of the Under-18 Premier League and Premier League 2, success for the women’s side completes a full circle of progress. It is a club transformed over the past 14 years.
There has been integration with the men’s team that feels entirely natural. Sunday’s final-day fixture is likely to see a record crowd and will take place at Selhurst Park, where they have found a way to win after previous failed attempts. The academy facilities are shared, Kaminski has had lunch with manager Oliver Glasner and before that, his predecessor Roy Hodgson. Selhurst is a joint home and the club “has a real family feel”.
“It’s a whole club, a shared space,” Kaminski says. “I really feel it. When I’m walking through the building, I have male academy players, first-team players congratulating me and speaking to me, the men’s captain coming over and having conversations on a regular basis.
“It’s all natural and that is a credit to what the board, (chairman) Steve Parish and (sporting director) Dougie Freedman have created here because it’s a comfortable space for us to be in.”
“The club always wanted to push to go into the Super League but knew that perhaps, if you look at other clubs in their journeys, in terms of duration, it was never designed to be a rocket to the top.
“But we implemented the foundations on and off the pitch. We created a squad we felt we could invest in and we got the infrastructure right. It clicked and putting those things in place was only going to end in success because it was thought of by experienced people who had been there and done it before and using all that knowledge in the room to create an environment for the players to thrive.”
This part of south London has boasted a women’s team among the elite before, with future England manager Hope Powell co-founding Bromley Borough, who earned promotion to the top flight in 1994 before merging with Croydon and later transitioning into Charlton Athletic Women after a takeover in 2000.
It is a different era now and women’s football has grown significantly, with Kaminski referencing the sight of youngsters with players’ names on the backs of their shirts when she travels to watch other games as a “turning point”.
But she does not intend to dwell on that, instead, she is eager to appreciate the achievement of her players and the club in the present while aspiring to success in the WSL next season. There is an appreciation of the challenge but a quiet confidence.
“The club and its culture is outstanding. I believe the environment in place is world-leading. I always think you can hear identity and culture when you walk in the building, if you can hear laughter, if there’s mixed tables at lunch, those things are key. For this club, it happens naturally. It’s something I’m proud to be part of.
“You can see a squad that’s brave and ambitious but humble. I believe fans can look at the group and see a professional collection of women who are leading the way in accepting the challenge.
“It might be tough and things might look different for us, but I’ve got a group of people who I have no doubt will run faster, run harder and be ready for the challenge.”
(Top photo: Warren Little/Getty Images)
