Ipswich Town Women’s boss Joe Sheehan was pleased to be back on the Playford Road turf on Tuesday night as his side began their pre-season preparations ahead of 2020/21.
"It’s really good, five months off, probably the longest break I’ve had in many years,” he told club media.
"It’s good to be back and see the staff, see the players and get back on to what we want to work on for the forthcoming season.”
The Tractor Girls were top of the Women's National League Division One South East when the 2019/20 campaign was brought to a premature end in March due to the coronavirus crisis and eventually declared null and void.
Sheehan says he’s spent the months since looking back on that campaign - in which the Blues also made an impressive FA Cup run to round five for the first time in the club’s history before exiting to Manchester City - and ahead to the new one.
"Lots of reflecting, lots of reflecting, lots of learning, lots of watching and thinking of things we need to maybe implement moving forwards to be a lot better than we were last year.,” he added. "And now we want to try and put it all into practice.”
He says the players have returned in good condition - "They’ve come back looking really well which should set us up really nicely” - with one new member having been added to the squad, England U21 international midfielder Georgia Allen, 21.
"We’ve know Georgia for a while, we had her with us last year so we know what Georgia’s capable of and she knows us and trusts us as staff and we’re looking forward to adding her to our plans,” he continued.
Sheehan says he doesn’t anticipate making too many more signings: "Possibly, probably one, possibly two but it will be no more than that.”
The Tractor Girls are set to play pre-season friendlies behind closed doors away from home at Needham Market, St Ives Town, the MK Dons and Watford.