Blackburn Rovers Women manager Simon Parker admitted his team helped Crystal Palace along the way in their 4-0 victory at Ewood Park.

Rovers have made a bright start to the season, coming into the weekend's game with three wins and one defeat from their first four games. However, they were brought back down to Earth against Palace, losing four nil.

Palace led 1-0 at the break thanks to Shanade Hopcroft and Rovers competed until a late second-half capitulation. Palace scored three goals in a 15-minute spell from the 71st minute to completely change the complexion of the match.

Polly Doran scored the decisive second, scoring from close range before Annabel Blanchard and Molly Sharpe sealed the win for the Eagles. It was a disappointing result for Rovers, with boss Parker insisting his side will learn from the result.

"It's disappointing, you can lose games but there are ways to do that which are less painful," Parker said. "Second half, the way we conceded quite quickly after each other.

"The second half was poor in that sense. We are disappointed and we'll take the time to reflect. We know Palace are a good side and we made a lot of errors that led to their goals so we have ourselves to blame.

"It was always going to happen, it's never a straight line to success. We started really well and we know there will be moments where you get punished and you will lose. We have to react and learn from it, it's an opportunity to learn."

There was some positive news to come from the match as Milly Robertson made her long-awaited return to action after almost four years on the sidelines. Robertson suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in November 2019 and got her first taste of action as a late substitute.

Rovers Women: Brooks, Nokuthula, Seed, Silcock, Hutchings, Toland, Doyle (Chandarana 72’), Williams (Dahou 72’), Thomas, Walters (C) (Robertson 90+3’), Hornby (Shepherd 46’).

Subs not used: Salgado, Smith & Howarth

League position: Third

Next up: Durham (A), FA WSL Cup, October 11.