Ipswich Town Women will be looking to bounce back from the disappointment of last week’s 3-0 opening day defeat to Portsmouth when they host Gillingham at the AGL Arena this afternoon (KO 2pm).
The defeat was a blow with Town targeting promotion this season having finished third last term but midfielder Eloise King says she and her team-mates are aiming to put the disappointment behind them quickly.
"We’ve spoken about it being so early on in the season, it’s a great opportunity for us to learn and bounce back, and I’m sure we’ll do that on Sunday,” she said.
"Naturally, once you’ve lost a game you think ‘Right, let’s get out act together, we need to go and get the three points’.
"But nothing really changes, we’ll keep our heads, go again and we’ll try and get the three points.
"We don’t want to be playing catch-up but at the same time we’re not going to put any pressure on ourselves, we’re not going to panic, we’re not going to worry, we’re going to take each week as it comes.
"We’ve dealt with the game on Sunday and now our full focus is on Gillingham.”
The Kent side go into the game with their existence in jeopardy, Gillingham FC having withdrawn funding two years ago and a buyer currently being sought.
Last season they finished sixth in FA Women’s National League Southern Premier and frustrated Town as they claimed a 0-0 draw in Felixstowe in January. Earlier in the campaign, the Blues had won 3-0 away.
Town lost midfielder Kyra Robertson and forward Zoe Barratt to serious-looking injuries during the Portsmouth match and manager Joe Sheehan says the pair are looking at a spell on the sidelines.
"Two players that came off in the first half off the back of what were quite heavy tackles, certainly the first one,” he said.
"Both were taken to hospital, Zoe had an x-ray. It came back all clear but there’s still quite a severe swelling, a moderate sprain there. She’s only just weight-bearing but we’re unsure of the length of her situation.
"Kyra still has a lot of soreness in her knee and we’ll try and arrange a scan for her to get that checked out.
"We’re not sure on timeframes as yet but still early stages and two players that we’ll help support over the next week or so to get an idea of where they’re at and long term what we’ll need to provide for them.”
Midfielder Lucy O’Brien is also out injured with a recurrence of a tear in her knee she suffered in November last year. If she doesn’t need surgery, she should be back in a few weeks.
Given the loss of the key players, Sheehan says the Blues will lok to make additions: "I think so. We felt that we had probably just enough to get us through to maybe October before we have players returning.
"But we were aware that any more injuries would leave us down to the bare bones. We’re actively trying to strengthen the group and will hopefully have an update on that in the coming few days.”
Sheehan says he’s been pleased with the response to the Portsmouth defeat: "Fine. We accept that our circumstances at the moment with players’ injuries means that we’ve got to work with what we’ve got, we’ve got to try and adapt and there will be certain aspects of the game we might be a bit vulnerable to because of the personnel in certain areas.
"But we understand that and we know it’s only short term, and we have enough trust in the players to do what we think is required in areas.
"And while we conceded three goals against Portsmouth, two from set pieces, we also know that we can actually play a bit better, we can create more chances and we can be a bit more ruthless in front of goal, and that’s something we’ll expect going into Sunday.”