West Ham come from behind to beat relegation rivals Palace
West Ham came from two goals down to beat relegation rivals Crystal Palace in a thrilling Women's Super League clash.
Goals from Mille Gejl and Indiah-Paige Riley inside the opening 11 minutes put the visitors in control, before Viviane Asseyi, Seraina Piubel and Manuela Pavi hit back for the Hammers before the break.
Both sides went into the match propping up the WSL table, with Palace only bottom on goal difference. Both have leaked goals far too easily this season, as was made abundantly clear in the first half.
Palace raced into a two-goal lead with Gejl smartly converting from Annabel Blanchard's through-ball, before Riley's tame effort somehow deceived Kinga Szemik in the West Ham goal to sneak in at the back post.
Rehanne Skinner's side responded well, though, and it wasn't long before Asseyi - West Ham's all-time leading WSL scorer - lunged to convert Piubel's ball across the face of goal.
Blanchard's mystifying open-goal miss proved to be a sliding doors moment, as 10 minutes later Piubel sneaked an effort in at near post to draw the hosts level at 2-2.
Pavi completed the comeback a minute before the break by passing into an empty net after Asseyi rounded Shae Yanez.
Oona Siren really should have scored a fourth, but fired straight at Yanez after waltzing through the Palace backline.
The second half was relatively lacking in goalmouth action compared to the opening 45 minutes, until Anouk Denton was given the freedom of the Palace half and fired past Yanez.
There was still time for Hammers captain Katrina Gorry to add an injury-time fifth after the ball flashed across the face of goal.
Victory moved West Ham up to eighth in the table, three points above the drop zone.
Defeat also meant Palace have gone 1-0 up in four of their last five league games, but failed to win any of them, and no other WSL team has dropped more points from winning positions this term (10).
Laura Kaminski's side remain bottom of the table on goal difference from Leicester, with five points after nine games.
Viviane Asseyi has scored 14 WSL goals for West Ham
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