Ipswich Town Women’s title – and promotion – hopes took a significant blow after a 1-0 loss at home to Oxford United, the U’s completing a league double over the Tractor Girls for the season, with both sides having been reduced to 10 women.
Town manager Joe Sheehan named an identical starting XI and bench to the one that dispatched Championship side Lewes in the FA Cup before Christmas.
Former Blue Zoe Barratt, who scored the winning goal at Court Place Farm earlier in the season, started for the visitors.
The home side started brightly and restricted the visitors to their own half for the opening stages, but were unable to create any clear-cut chances.
On 22 Oxford’s Lacy-Jai Liggett received the first booking of the game following a nasty challenge on Sophie Peskett.
Four minutes later, a neat passage of play led to Peskett creating the first chance of the game but her shot from the left-hand side of the box was wide.
Town continued to dominate possession and on 31 Peskett again shot wide after having won the ball in the middle of the park.
A minute later, forward Lenna Gunning-Williams broke from midfield but saw her shot blocked on the edge of the box. Soon after, Gunning-Williams was again on the attack but shot narrowly wide.
On 36 Oxford broke towards goal, however Town keeper Poppy Soper was quick to react and put in a brave block just outside her area, requiring treatment following the clash.
Four minutes later, Ipswich had a free-kick in a dangerous position, but skipper Maria Boswell could not beat U’s keeper Paris Sercombe despite putting the ball on target to the top-left corner.
With four minutes to the break Oxford finally had their first attempt on goal, with a shot from distance going over the bar.
A minute later Ipswich again went close to opening the scoring, Doe shooting over after Gunning-Williams had flashed the ball across the six-yard box.
There was a lively start to the second half with Vitaliaia Budaieva, who had replaced Jaime Gotch at the break, booked on 46 for a foul on Peskett.
And eight minutes later, the visitors were reduced to 10 after Liggett’s late lunge earned her a second booking and red card.
Despite the numerical superiority, Town failed to capitalise on the advantage and despite working the ball into good areas, could not create a killer chance to go in front.
Just after the hour, the ball appeared to hit a U’s defender’s hand in the area but the referee waved away the vociferous appeals from the Ipswich players.
And in the 71st minute against the run of play, Oxford took the lead. A defensive mix-up at the back left Soper out of position and former Blue Barratt squared the ball to Shelly Provan, who was able to put the ball into the path of Budaieva to poke home into an empty net.
Having taken the lead, Oxford were content to sit back and stretch play, with Ipswich struggling to create any meaningful attacking play. On 79 Sheehan made his first substitutions with Leah Mitchell and Holly Turner replacing Maisy Barker and Ruby Doe.
Ipswich continued to search for an equaliser but struggled to create chances with Mitchell’s effort off the crossbar on 89 being the only one of note.
A minute later Sheehan made a further change, bringing on Bonnie Horwood in place of Kyra Robertson.
In the first minute of injury time, Ipswich were also reduced to 10 players after Evie Williams was shown a straight red having been adjudged to have brought down Barratt when the latter was through on goal, although the contact appeared minimal.
Oxford almost doubled their lead from the resulting free-kick however the ball pinged off the right corner post.
The Tractor Girls will feel aggrieved to have lost a game that they controlled for large spells, however, a lack of a cutting edge meant that there was no buffer when the U’s did score and Town were particularly wasteful in possession when they had a numerical advantage.
The loss means that Town are now 14 points adrift of leaders Hashtag United with three games in hand and 11 behind second-placed Pompey with one game in hand, with Oxford moving level with the Blues on points.
Ipswich Town Women are back in action at the AGL Arena next Sunday, taking on Championship high flyers Charlton Athletic in the Women’s FA Cup, before returning to league action on 21 January with an away trip to London Bees.
The London Bees game will be played in Barnet’s Hive stadium and tickets are only £1. The ITFC Women Official Supporters Club will be arranging fan transport for this away fixture and more information can be requested by emailing itfcwosc@gmail.com.
Town: Soper, Barker (Mitchell 79), Boswell, Williams, Hughes, Robertson (Horwood 90), O’Brien, Peskett, Doe (Turner 79), Gunning-Williams, Thomas. Unused: Hartley, Evans. Att: 480.