London City Lionesses beat capital rivals Charlton 2-0 away from home to stay third in the FA Women’s Championship table.

Second-half goals from Florence Fyfe and Evie Clarke were enough to oust their local rivals in their first ever South London derby at the Oakwood.

Leanne Cowan came the closest to opening the scoring when her mishit cross skimmed the post early on.

Full-back Rachel Newborough produced the first chance for Charlton on ten minutes, but her long-range effort was easily collected by Lucy Thomas in the Lionesses goal.

The Lionesses had a penalty appeal on the half-hour mark when Liz Ejupi was brought down by Addick captain Grace Coombs but referee Louise Saunders adjudged the tackle to be perfectly timed.

Half-time did not halt the Lionesses momentum as The Pride enclosed the Addicks into their own 18-yard box but suddenly against the run of play it was Chris Phillips’ side who had to clear their lines when Ellie Dorey’s header was met by Poppy Wilson on the goal line.

However, despite the scare the Lionesses replied quickly with two-goals in quick succession with Fyfe and Clarke both benefiting from Ejupi’s direct approach to the game. Fyfe benefited from the striker’s unselfishness to pass while Clarke cleared up her deflected shot from long range that forced Startup into a save.

The Lionesses stood firm in defence to secure all three points which frustrated Charlton, who saw their new signing Charlie Devlin receive a second yellow card in the final seconds of the game.

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Charlton Athletic: Katie Startup, Chloe Kerr, Rachel Newborough, Grace Coombs, Ellie Dorey, Charley Clifford, Charlie Devlin, Lily Woodham, Charlie Estcourt, Jenna Legg, Lili Maple

Substitutes: Alice Griffiths for Estcourt 61, Lois Heuchan for Charley Clifford 74, Renee Hector for Dorey 78.

London City Lionesses (3-5-2): Lucy Thomas, Leanne Cowan, Poppy Wilson, Hannah Short, Elisabeta Ejupi, Juliette Kempi, Evie Clarke, Grace Bennett, Ellie Mason, Florence Fyfe.

Substitutes: Lucy Fitzgerald for Ejupi 70, Vanessa Susanna for Fyfe 70, Kallie Balfour for Evie Clarke 89.

Charlton manager Riteesh Mishra said: “The big thing is that we have dropped more points at home, we have not lost at home for a long time so that is disappointing. We were in the game for 70 minutes, it is small margins, we have one cleared off the line then a couple of minutes we concede.”

“We are in games but at the moment things are not going our way and we are lacking confidence because of results and again we haven’t scored so it is just a confidence thing. It is my responsibility and my job to pick them up on it but there were certain things in this game that made is more disappointing.

“We need to back to the basics of working hard and being competitive at every training session. It is not just good enough to work hard on the Sunday, we have to do it during the week and that is what we are going to do.

London City Lionesses striker Evie Clarke said: “In the first half, it just took us a while to find that final ball but at half-time it was 0-0 and we felt we should have been one or two up but we got it in the second-half. We got go one in from Flo, then one in from me – just an easy tap-in.

“It is such an easy goal to get if the keeper fumbles, you just got a tap in. Every time the someone shots you have to follow up and see what the keeper says because more times than not they fumble and it is an easy tap-in, an easy goal.

“We are quite a new team so it takes time to gel, but we are getting there slowly but surely. I am starting to know that Liz likes turn, dribble and shoot so I am starting to follow up on her shots. It is about knowing what each other wants on, but also off the ball and we are getting there as a pairing.”