Lewes Women beat Chartlon thanks to goals from Mackey and Quayle

Despite Lois Heuchan’s strike and a strong fightback in the second-half, Charlton couldn’t avoid another defeat and remain bottom of the FA Women’s Championship.

Their south coast hosts picked up a vital fourth win of the season, their first since beating Blackburn in mid-October.

Lewes started the brighter, with Sophie O’Rourke fouled inside the box but the referee waved away appeals.

The hosts continued to look to create and the 19-year-old came close to open the scoring as her looping effort flew over the bar.

Sophie O’Rourke delivered a fine cross into the box and found captain Rhian Cleverly but her close-range effort went straight at visiting keeper Eartha Cumings as well as the rebound.

It took Charlton a full half-hour to fashion a half-chance when Charlotte Gurr picked Jessica King out inside the box and her effort went wide.

The hosts hit the front when Ellie Leeks free-kick fell to Mackey, who slot the ball into the bottom corner e to earn a deserved lead.

Simon Parker’s side doubled their lead before half-time through Quayle who burst into the Charlton box and poked a low effort past Cumings.

Lewes began the second half in similar fashion to the way they ended the first and almost claimed their third goal before the hour after some great play between O’Rourke and Paula Howells played in Simran Jhamat, as her low-effort went narrowly wide.

The visitors managed to get a goal back through Heuchan, who chipped the ball over Tatiana Saunders to set up a nervy end to the game.

Moments later, Charlton almost equalised when Ella Rutherford’s long-range effort was parried away by the Lewes keeper and past King, who could have scored the rebound.

The Addicks mounted further pressure as they earned a free-kick on the edge of the box - Saunders spilled Clifford’s free-kick, but the ball fell to a defender to clear and Lewes saw out the victory.

To follow the action and sign up for The FA Player’s live Barclays FA Women’s Super League coverage visit womenscompetitions.thefa.comLewes’s Sammy Quayle said: “It was a massive win for us and important to get the three points.

“It means a lot for us but we’ve got got another big game next week so hopefully we can get another three points.

“The two-week break can be difficult because we feel like we don’t want to lose momentum but I think it was quite important for us to have that break to reshape and rebuild.

“At half-time, we knew they were going to come out at us. We wanted to carrying on playing the way we were. We had to keep our shape and distances were good.

“They played well and got a goal back. I think on the pitch, we always felt we were going to win. It was our mistake from our half for (Charlton) goal and it’s an area we have to work on.

“It was amazing to have fans back, and I think we’ve got used to not having fans in the ground. With fans coming back in, it really showed to us how important they are to us.”

Charlton's Jessica King said: "In the first half, we weren’t firing on all cylinders and Lewes scored two goals in that period so it ended up being a difficult task for us in the second half to try and come back into the game.

“Going 2-0 down is a dangerous score line to go at half-time. We knew that we could get back into the game because we already created a few chances but weren’t good enough so we had to step up. We made a few changes and made a difference.

“We started to create chances in the second half and Lewes were under pressure. We could see the momentum shifting and didn’t take our chances to get something out of this game.

“Fans play a big part of football and was nice to have people at the game, although they’re not our fans. Fans brought back the match and stadium atmosphere so hopefully we can gradually get closer to normality.

“We have to perform for 90 minutes or at least more than 30 minutes. If we want to win games, at the end of the day, we need to take our chances, put our bodies on the line to stop, we can’t let someone dribble past four of our players and expect to win the game. We need to fix it in the next game."

Lewes: Tatiana Saunders, Sammy Quayle, Rhian Cleverly, Danni Lane, Nicola Cousins, Simran Jhamat, Ellie Leek, Paula Howells, Sophie O’Rourke, Katie Rood, Megan Mackey.

Substitutes: Ellie Hack for Mackey 80, Emma Jones for Jhamat 74, Emily Donovan for Howells 71, Filippa Savva for Leek 71, Lucy Porter for Rood 71.

Substitutes not used: Ellie Noble, Charley Boswell, Hannah Griffin, Laura Hartley.

Goals: Mackey 39, Quayle 45.

Charlton: Eartha Cumings, Bethan Roe, Olivia Smith, Charley Clifford, Jessica King, Jaime Gotch, Charlotte Gurr, Jenna Legg, Shauna Vassell, Lois Heuchan, Beth Lumsden.

Substitutes: Alice Griffiths for Legg 60, Ellie Dorey for Vassell 45, Rea Laudat for Gurr 82, Ella Rutherford for Lumsden 45,

Substitutes not used: Grace Coombs, Ciara Watling, Simone Eligon.

Goals: Heuchan 64

Referee: Jake Woodman