Ipswich Town Women get their season under way when they host Portsmouth at the AGL Arena, Felixstowe this afternoon (KO 2pm).
Having finished third in the FAWNL Southern Premier Division last year after being in the fight for the title for most of last season, their first campaign at this level, the Tractor Girls will be aiming for top spot and place in the play-offs which would see them into the Barclays Women's Championship this time around.
Manager Joe Sheehan says the squad have had a good pre-season and are well prepared for the campaign ahead.
"We feel like we’re in good shape, the proof of that will be how start and how we reflect after four or five games,” he said.
Sheehan says he’s looking forward to the season proper getting under way: "We had an enjoyable start last year and we feel like we’ve put in a solid bank of work, tried to get our ideas across, what we’re asking for, and we won’t really know how successful we’ve been until the season starts.
"We’re looking forward to starting to see where we’re at. No doubt it’ll be full of ups and downs and lots of different challenges, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Town failed to beat Portsmouth last season, a 1-0 defeat in Hampshire on the final day in May following a 1-1 draw in Suffolk in January and Sheehan says Pompey, who finished seventh in 2021/22, are a side which can cause anyone problems.
"They’re always a team which are competitive, they’re established at the level. They’re capable of picking up points against any team in the division,” he said.
"It won’t be an easy start but we embrace challenges like that and we’re looking forward to it.
"They’re capable of picking up points against any team in the division. We won’t be looking too much on historic games against them for revenge purposes, I don’t think it’s about that.
"It’s just about trying to put together a good week of work, giving players good clarity and trying to put them in the best position to perform.”
Bonnie Harwood (pictured above), who skippered the team for most of last season in the absence of the injured Blue Wilson, is this season moving to centre-half from her midfield role.
"I’ve played about 20 seasons at centre mid, so it’s a bit different but it’s going alright so far, just learning as I go along,” she said.
The 35-year-old believes it’s a case of taking the campaign match by match: "I think so, we have at the back of our minds what we’d like to achieve but as we learnt from last year we can’t get carried away and we will take it each game at a time and go from there.”