Ipswich Town Women travel to Canvey Island on Sunday for a potential title decider in the FAWNL Southern Premier League promotion race against their perennial rivals Hashtag United (KO 2pm).

The Essex side sit top of the table by three points but victory away to the league leaders would see Town replace them with three games still in hand.

Speaking to media at Playford Road, head coach Joe Sheehan revealed he cannot wait for the game.0:00

“They’re a really top team in our division, we’ve got so much respect for the success that they’ve had for quite a few years now. They beat Newcastle in the League Cup final last year, who are now competing really well in the Championship, so we know they’re a strong team.”

Win or lose to Hashtag, Ipswich Town Women have promotion to the Women’s Championship in their own hands. They remain unbeaten in the league this season and will hope to maintain that record following their toughest away game in the Women’s National League. However, for the time being, Sheehan will not let his squad think about the future, concentrating minds on the job in hand.

“We’re in a great position, but we’ve got a really tough eight games to go,” he continued. “We’ve detached ourselves really from the outcome of this season.

“We haven’t really spoken too much about that. We’ve immersed ourselves in preparing and training and attacking every day as best we can. It isn’t something we think about as a group, as staff, as players. We just put everything into every day and every game.

“If we can perform well and win, it’s another one ticked off and then we just repeat the whole cycle.”

The eagerly-awaited clash at the Steve Taxis Stadium will be the fourth meeting between the two sides this season. Town won an early-season league encounter 2-0 at Felixstowe but Hashtag gained revenge by knocking the Suffolk side out of the FAWNL Cup at the same venue.

The two teams were also drawn together in the FA Cup, where Town came from behind, dramatically equalising in the 96th minute to make the scoreline 2-2, before going through after winning the penalty shoot-out.

“Obviously with each game, we learn a little bit more,” says Sheehan. “The more you play them, the more you’re aware of their players and their threats. We’ve certainly learned a lot from the three games that we’ve played. A couple that have gone in our favour, one not so.

“We’ll be well prepared for the game, but likewise, they’ll feel the same about us having played us on a few occasions. It kind of works both ways.

“It promises to be a really exciting, challenging and competitive game that’s going to bring out the best in both teams and we’ll see how it goes.”

Last month, Hashtag United strengthened their squad by signing Eloise King from Ipswich who may play against her former team-mates this weekend, something that Sheehan admitted will be “a strange experience”.

Since the turn of the year, the league leaders have scored 42 goals in seven games, including double figures in three matches, as they attempt to make up a deficit of 21 in goal difference.

Sheehan added: “Maybe they’ve tried to be a bit more attacking, aware of the goal difference that we have between us. But I think they’ve always been capable of scoring a lot of goals to be honest, they’re a really front-foot team that like to get the ball forward quick and commit a lot of bodies forward.

“They’re really good in transition, they’re really good at pressing. They’re good at stopping attacks and they’re really good at suffocating you at times and making you feel trapped.

“When they play with that much intensity and that much pressure, then they often force themselves into the opposition’s goal at times and we’ve seen that on countless occasions in the last few times that we’ve watched them.

“It’s no surprise that they’ve scored a lot, they’ve got some good players in attacking areas that can cause a lot of problems and we’ll have to make sure we’re well prepared to deal with that threat.”

With no game last weekend, the club posted a light-hearted video of Maisy Barker and Ella Rutherford doing impersonations of every member of the squad. I asked Sheehan what he thought of Rutherford’s insinuation that he used the world ‘alright’ in every team-talk.

“We’ve had a bit of discussion over it!” he smiled. “I probably have said that on the odd occasion. Whether she said it as good as I can say it, I’m not sure but yeah, it did make me laugh a little bit.”

Asif Burhan

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