Ipswich Town Women claimed a hard-fought 1-0 victory against newly-promoted Billericay Town at the New Lodge this evening in their first away game of the season, getting their campaign up and running at the third time of asking.
Town manager Joe Sheehan named an unchanged line-up from Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat to Gillingham, with academy player Leah Mitchell replacing Megan Wearing on the bench, the latter having been on duty with Scotland U19s earlier in the day.
The game started brightly with Town having an early chance on three minutes. Anna Grey was played through by Natasha Thomas but the keeper was able to make a comfortable save.
The away side retained a lot of the possession thereafter, but were frustrated by Billericay’s high press and had more success out wide, with Grey and Summer Hughes afforded space to drive forward.
On 18 minutes Ipswich created the first real chance of the game, Sarah Brasero-Carreira driving to the byline and cutting the ball back across goal, with Thomas’s on-rushing shot brilliantly tipped over the bar by Billericay keeper Jess Gray for a corner.
The half then progressed fairly evenly with both teams playing to a high intensity and counter-attacking football being the order of the day for a period, before Town grew into the last 15 minutes of the half, creating a string of chances interspersed with some dangerous Billericay breaks down the left-hand side with Jess King looking a real threat on the ball.
The sides headed into the break level at 0-0 with Town having played the better football but lacking a real cutting edge and appearing frustrated by Billericay’s high press, and the home side looking dangerous on the counter.
Billericay started the second half brightly, again pressing Town and forcing an opportunity on 47 minutes with Zoe Rushen’s effort being over the bar by Sarah Quantrill for a corner.
Billericay continued to pile on the pressure, seeing another effort cleared off the line on 55 minutes.
However, on 63, and against the run of play, Town took the lead. Grey, who had been a handful on the left-hand side, burst through to play an inch-perfect cross in for Thomas to smash home from close range. The home side could feel aggrieved having started the half so brightly, but the Blues had weathered the storm before driving forward to open the scoring.
Billericay immediately attempted to get back on equal terms with a header forced wide on 65 minutes, but with the hosts looking for an equaliser Town were able to push up more and remain a threat on goal.
In the 86th minute, Thomas broke through the Billericay backline only to be denied by the keeper with the loose ball hooked out of play.
Ipswich then managed the game out well, Nia Evans replacing Maddie Biggs on 93 before and comfortably seeing out the six minutes of injury time to register their first win of the season.
Although the game was not always easy on the eye, Ipswich were deserved winners having edged the contest over 90 minutes against a Billericay side that was not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the Tractor Girls.
With Sunday’s league fixture against Watford postponed due to international call-ups for several Hornets players, the team can now regroup before their FA WNL Cup Determining Round fixture against FA WNL Division One South East side QPR on 11th September.
Starting XI: Quantrill, Boswell, O Smith, Lafayette, Hughes, Horwood, King, Grey, Brasero-Carreira, Biggs (Evans 93), Thomas. Unused: Meollo, Mitchell, A Smith