Town Women’s all-time top scorer Natasha Thomas has continued to rewrite the club’s history books this season and Asif Burhan caught up with her ahead of tomorrow’s game against Oxford United at the Martello Ground, Felixstowe.
Natasha Thomas is right at the top of her game at the moment. The player who recently became the women's team all-time leading appearance-maker and the club's first female senior international has returned from making her debut with Jamaica to score nine goals in her last three games with Town.
"I spoke to [manager] Joe [Sheehan] about my form and since I've come back from international camp, it's just been top notch,” Thomas she said.
"I'd been playing well prior, but the goals just weren't coming. For me, it was just about working hard and doing what I needed to do, keep to the principles and now the goals are coming, and hopefully they keep on coming. I've just got to keep on pushing now.”
Thomas's latest goal spree has taken her to 161 in 222 games. However, the club's all-time leading goalscorer finds herself in the unusual position of trailing one of her team-mates in the club's scoring charts so far this season.
But despite winger Sophie Peskett having notched 14 to her 10, she insists that doesn’t get to her and that "as long as the team is winning games, I don't care who scores”.
Over the summer, Ipswich recruited three forwards from a higher level, bringing in Issy Fisher on loan from WSL club Arsenal and signing Ella Rutherford and Angela Addison from Charlton in the Championship. Did Thomas fear that she might lose her place as the club's first-choice striker?
"I don't think I ever feared for my place,” she reflected. "I just relish the competition and the standard of players coming in.
"Also, I want to make sure I'm pushing myself. I don't want to stay at the same level, I want to keep on pushing my technical abilities and my understanding of football as well.”
For years, Thomas combined her football career with work as a personal trainer in Lowestoft where she still lives. Now the club’s increased commitment to the women’s team means she has gone full-time and was able to quit her other job.
Although not Suffolk born, Thomas has lived in the county since she was a toddler when her family moved there from Birmingham.
"I've been brought up in Suffolk since a very young age,” she recalled. "When I was younger, I always just used to go down the field with my brothers and his friends as well. He's a little bit older than me, there's about a five-year gap.
"All the time when I was at school as well, it was just always kicking a ball around at lunch breaks, on the pavement and things like that.
"Football for me in Suffolk, it's just something that has kept me going. Most women and girls when they leave school, they give it up. But for me, it was such a big passion that I really wanted to keep going.
"I did have other avenues that I could have gone down - basketball and athletics - but football was a big part of my life, it's stolen my heart really so I kept on with it.”
That decision has now earned Thomas international recognition with her first call-up to the Jamaican international squad at the age of 28, something that the club helped instigate.
A call from women’s team general manager Rachel Harris informed the Jamaican federation that Thomas was eligible to play for the Reggae Girlz through her grandparents.
"Within a couple of weeks I was on a Zoom call with them and they were going over their standards and things like that, what I could bring to the team,” she said.
"From there, I got a call-up. I think they were quite impressed with me when I was away.”
Thomas played the last 20 minutes of Jamaica’s friendly game away to France. In spite of coming up against Wendie Renard, one of the world's best defenders, Thomas told me she wasn't tempted to swap shirts after such a special moment in her life.
"I did keep hold of mine, obviously it was my debut shirt, playing against women from the top tier of football in the world,” she added. "Not only that, the women I was playing alongside, there were so many phenomenal players.
"When I ran out on the pitch, it was a weird feeling because I didn’t feel scared or that if I did something wrong, I would be looked upon [unfavourably]. I felt comfortable and that comes from all the players and the coaches.”
Next week, Thomas will find out if she has been retained in the Jamaica squad for two home internationals against South Africa in the resort of Montego Bay which come in between two critical Ipswich Town matches in the FA Cup and league against their main promotion rivals Hashtag United.
"I'm really excited,” she admitted on the prospect of another call-up. "They've been watching as well, messaging me and things for footage.
"So yeah, I'd love to go there and to be able to play in the camp on home turf. It's going to be two games as well, so I’ll be able to show myself even more.
"If I do get picked, if I don't get picked, I'm going to keep on pushing, keep on making sure I'm putting myself in the best possible position to be able to get selected in the next camps.”
Whatever the future holds, Thomas has written herself into the club’s history with her name now etched on the Ipswich Town international hall of fame board at Portman Road. She will forever be remembered as the first woman to join the illustrious list of club legends.
"[Chairman and CEO] Mark Ashton himself gave me a call and said, ‘look, I'm going to be putting you on the board. This is something really big, we're really proud of you and that is something that we want to do for you with what you’ve done for your career, here at Ipswich as well as internationally’”.
"I think for younger girls - or even the girls in the squad now - it’s a big push for them now to hopefully get their international call-up for the senior team as well. I know there's so many players that have that ability.”