Joe Sheehan, manager of Ipswich Town Women, has praised his players for the fact that their outstanding progress to the quarter-final stage of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup has not affected their league form as they seek to win promotion to the Women's Championship, England’s second tier.
The Tractor Girls would do that by capturing the National League South title and then winning a play-off against their counterparts from National League North.
Town currently top the table after suffering just one defeat in their 20 games to date and Sheehan, pictured above with defender Paige Peake at Friday's press conference, emphasised: "The league is so important to us because we are really, really trying to get out of our division and go into the Championship.
"We have always been conscious, as staff and players, of what promotion could do for our careers.
"We are all aware that it could be huge — life-changing even — for all of us and particularly for the young players who don’t get paid because they are in education or employment. They commit so much to train, compete and travel all over the south of England with us.
"We know what it will mean if we win promotion and that has always been our focus. If anyone has been distracted by our progress in the cup it has probably been me and that’s testament to the players really.
"They are so committed to the league campaign and it’s no surprise to me that since the cup draw was made our league results have been really good and the performances have been of such a high standard, because they know how important it is.”
For now, though, nothing matters more than Sunday’s tie at the Goldstar Ground in Felixstowe, where the Tractor Girls’ task is to find a way of eliminating Super League side West Ham United and advancing into the semi-finals of the knockout competition.
Sheehan’s side reached the last eight by defeating third tier rivals Southampton, who trail them by 13 points in the league but have five games in hand. Town led 1-0 towards the end of extra-time but were pegged back when the Saints’ keeper headed an equaliser deep into stoppage-time, taking the tie to its penalty shootout climax.
With the spot-kick drama ahead, Sheehan made a series of substitutions in the final seconds that helped decide the outcome, while also confirming the strength in depth of his youthful squad, and he added: "We always prepare diligently. We had played Southampton a few times and we knew chances would be few and far between.
"We try to look at how the game will go and from seeing West Ham a couple of times I see them as a complex team. It’s important not to overcomplicate things and because of the occasion I think simplicity and players having clarity is going to be important.
"There are certain parts of our game that we are going to need to be very organised with, to ensure we can be difficult to beat, and we will identify areas that we think we can exploit, based on the players we have in certain positions and where our opponents might be vulnerable because of what they try to do really well.
"It will be no different to any other week when we try to do that but on this occasion it’s a bit more for the players to take in.
"The substitutes will be ready too. We’ve got plenty, nine subs per game, so we can bring players on to make a difference. It might be if we think we have to see the game out, while we have some we can bring on if we need a bit more in terms of legs and we have some who can come on to provide a spark.
"Equally, we have players we can bring on if we need to score a few penalties. Our bench is full of flexibility and it will depend on how the game goes who we bring on and when.”
Asked how far he feels his team have progressed since the 10-0 FA Cup defeat at Manchester City two years ago, boss Sheehan answered: "That was a real lesson to us, facing world-class players who had played in the World Cup ten months previously.
"But we have players who are determined to get as high as they can in the game and it was a really important game for us because we came away from it knowing what world-class looked like.
"What we’re trying to do is to strive towards that but it takes time. All we’ve managed to do is to grow naturally and stick to developing the players. The physical aspect has been an important part of that but we have young players who won’t be developed until they’re 23 or even older, so again it’s about time.
"The average age of a Super League player is 25 and a half and West Ham’s is 28 and a half, which has gone up since last year and probably explains why they are better than they were a year ago.
"It’s a process, it will take time and all we can do is to work the players every day in training. But we know that the physical demands placed on us to win a game like this one against West Ham will make it really difficult and we’ll need a little bit of luck along the way.”
Sheehan admitted the Portman Road takeover a year ago had provided a welcome financial boost to the women’s section, adding: "The structure has improved because we have more staff in place, we train more and we are able to support our players financially.
"There has been significant investment that has really helped us in terms of developing the staff and the players.”