Charlton, Birmingham and Palace face Wsl2 promotion squeeze

Charlton Athletic and Birmingham City meet at The Valley in Wsl2 with promotion on the line, while Crystal Palace wait one point behind them before their home match with Portsmouth. Three teams are chasing two automatic promotion spots on Saturday, so the margin for error is gone.

The Valley decides two places

Charlton lead Birmingham by one point before kick-off at 3pm, and Charlton go up as champions if they win. A draw is enough for Charlton to finish in the top two, while Birmingham need to beat them to move ahead on the final day.

Charlton still carry the best defensive record in the league and the fewest defeats, yet they arrive with one win in six. Their slide is sharper because they were nine points clear in mid-March, then lost at home to Portsmouth after missing a chance to go 12 points clear.

Crystal Palace at home

Crystal Palace can take promotion outright by beating relegated Portsmouth at home. They have won 11 of their last 13 league matches, and they have been defeated once since early November. Palace also beat Birmingham 3-0 in December, so they already know they can hurt one of the teams in front of them.

That leaves Birmingham with no margin for a cautious result. If they do not win, they finish third unless Palace slip up, and third place is not the end of the road because it leads to a playoff.

23 May playoff awaits third

The third-place team will face the Women’s Super League bottom side on 23 May, and Leicester take that place after losing 7-0 at Arsenal on Wednesday. The top tier is expanding from 12 teams to 14 teams for this season only, so the prize this weekend is one of the most valuable in the league.

Amy Merricks said Birmingham must answer after last weekend’s 3-0 home loss to Ipswich. “The best teams have the ability to bounce back and we have a massive opportunity to make sure we respond and put it right,” she said, adding, “It comes down to the fight.”