Emma Watson scored her first two goals for Crystal Palace in a 3-2 win over Ipswich in the Subway Women’s League Cup.
But she was withdrawn at half-time – and boss Jo Potter revealed after the match that it had not been a planned change.
“Some lovely goals from Emma,” Potter told the club’s official website after the game. “It’s unfortunate we had to bring her off at half-time. It wasn’t planned.
“She rolled her ankle twice, actually, which is not great. She was upset at half-time, we’ll need to assess that one. Hopefully it’s not as bad as first feared.
“She was excellent in the first half, she took her goals extremely well.”
Scotland international Watson is on loan to Palace from Manchester United for the 2025-26 season, having spent last season on loan at Everton.
Her brace plus one from Allyson Swaby gave Palace the victory, with Natasha Thomas and Paige Peake replying for Ipswich.
“I was absolutely buzzing after I got the first,” Watson said afterwards. “I was then gunning for the second and then obviously got the second.
“I’m really happy to finally score my first Palace goal, especially here playing at home, I couldn’t ask for more.”
Jo Potter: We wanted to win
There were five changes in the starting eleven from Palace’s last game in the Women’s Championship against Sunderland, and the manager Potter said that she had chosen to give some players some minutes and rest others in this competition.
“I thought we played some nice stuff,” she said. “It was really good to see certain players get some really important minutes.”
She went on: “We wanted to win, we wanted to get three points from the game as well as give players that have needed minutes some really important minutes, and we managed to do both so we’re happy with the result in the end. We wanted to get the three points, which matters in this group phase, and we managed to do that.”
Palace are currently second in Group D, with one win and one loss and a zero goal difference. They sit behind Leicester City, who have won both their matches thus far.
