Ipswich Town Women’s manager Joe Sheehan admits his side’s season came to a disappointing end but feels there was a lot to be proud of and take forward into 2023/24.
The Tractor Girls missed out on the FAWNL Southern Premier Division title on goal difference from Watford, despite beating fellow challengers Oxford United 1-0 in Sunday’s final match at the AGL Arena in Felixstowe.
"A real blow, obviously,” Sheehan told TWTD at Monday’s men’s League One promotion celebration in Christchurch Park. "We knew it would be a tough ask for us to celebrate a league title yesterday but we did our bit, we couldn’t ask for much more.
"I wanted to come today to either celebrate a league victory for us and a promotion for the men. Equally, if it wasn’t going to go our way, then it would be a bit of a distraction for me.
"Really proud of what we have achieved, to win 10 games in a row conceding one goal throughout that time and have one defeat since late August, we can’t do much more than that.
"A disappointing end but lots to be proud of and lots for us to take forward into next year.”
Town got their season off to a slow start, losing their first two fixtures at home to Portsmouth, 3-0, and Gillingham, 2-1.
"We weren’t even able to fill a bench of senior players for our opening four games,” Sheehan recalled.
"And I think the third game [a 1-0 win at Billericay] was the most anxious I’ve been going into a game, having lost the first two. We’d never lost two games in a row, so the third one was massive.
"We hadn’t had any players back and that was a big win for us. That gave us a bit of a platform to build on but losing the opening two games in this division gave us a big uphill task and I can’t complain with the response.
"You drop more than four games in 22 and you could finish third, which is absolutely bonkers.
"It’s not easy but it helps us be absolutely relentless because we know the margin for error is so small.
"It’s been a successful season on that part, being able to win so many games, develop so many players and build a team which is getting closer and helps us move forwards.”
Sheehan, who took charge of the Tractor Girls in February 2019, has a young team, who he feels coped admirably with the end-of-season pressures and will step up a level next season as they mature.
"Our outfield 10 players on Sunday were all 21 or younger and to play in a game of that magnitude with so much on the line in front of a big crowd, shows how well we dealt with that,” he said.
"I think last year we fell short in those types of game, so we have improved from last year and hopefully next year again it will be another step forwards for us to get closer to the title that we’re so desperate for.”
However, with the Blues set for their third campaign in the FAWNL Southern Premier Division, he is concerned that he might lose members of his squad to other clubs over the summer.
"A little bit,” he admitted. "We have nine out of contract. We have some important meetings over the next week because it’s obvious our players attract so many big clubs because of their potential and I think they have served us really well and have been incredibly loyal over four and five years.
"So it will be difficult to keep hold of a lot of our players but we’ll see what we can put together and hopefully we can retain as many and recruit and top-up and see where it takes us.”
This season the winners of the FAWNL Southern Premier Division went into a play-off with the top side in the Northern Premier Division - the Hornets will face Nottingham Forest at Stadium:MK on Saturday 20th May - but from 2023/24 the title victors in both divisions will be automatically promoted to the Barclays Championship.
"That helps us in some ways, certainly with recruitment and maybe some investment as well,” Sheehan said. "Because you can win 22 games out of 22, have a tummy bug the night before a game or fall to a bad referee’s decision in the play-off final and feel it’s really undeserved not to go up.
"I think this time, the best team in the division will be promoted, albeit still with not many games.
"Look at Sheffield Wednesday, they could have got promoted on 96 points and I think they went eight games without a win. You go eight games without a win in our division, you could go down!
"It’s a welcome change that it’ll be automatic promotion for the team that wins it. I’m still a big advocate of expanding the divisions and promoting more teams because there are a lot of clubs like ourselves that I think deserve to be fighting in those top two divisions.”
CEO Mark Ashton recently told TWTD that he felt the Barclays Championship was the natural level for the Blues’ women’s team.
"Absolutely, yes,” Sheehan concurred. "I know what we deliver and how we work is easily as good as anyone in that division. We’ve had players who that have played in that division and have come into our environment and sang so many praises about it.
"I think now the infrastructure that we have, the training facilities, the staff and the playing quality, we’re easily able to compete in that division, it’s just getting there’s the biggest challenge.”
Something else to look forward to next season is playing their first games at Portman Road once the pitch has been renovated, work which is taking place over the course of the summer.
"That will be a good opportunity for us to play in that environment and hopefully a new reach of supporter that we can continue to build on because numbers are growing the World Cup coming up in the summer will help as well,” he said.
"We have an opportunity at this football club to have a men’s team that’s striving in the top division, we have a foundation which serves its community better than everyone else in this country and we have a women’s team which also does that, as well as an academy that produces really top talent.
"I think there’s an opportunity to tick and reach so many heights across so many different departments and I think it’s a really exciting time.”