Ipswich Town Women return to home action at the Martello Ground in Felixstowe this evening for the first time in almost two months as they host Billericay Town in the FAWNL Southern Division (KO 7.45pm).
The Blues last took to their own turf on December 15th for the Women’s FA Cup victory over AFC Bournemouth, while their most recent home league match was the 5-0 defeat of AFC Wimbledon on December 1st.
Town played their first league game of 2025 on Sunday when they drew 1-1 at Lewes, the first of three matches in a week with Exeter visiting Suffolk on Sunday.
"We’re in a good space at the moment,” manager Joe Sheehan told TownTV. "We’d gone a long time without playing, only managed to play one game [the FA Cup tie at Manchester City] in January, so the fact we’ve got a three-game week coming up is a little bit different to what we’ve been used to in recent times.
"We’re really excited for it. We’ve got a lot of depth now, we’ve got a lot of players to pick from, so hopefully we can prepare really well for the game and put in a good performance.”
Billericay are second bottom of the table having taken 13 points from 16 matches this season and were beaten 6-0 by the Blues in Essex in September.
Their squad includes former Blues Bonnie Horwood, Nia Evans, Liv Smith and Abbi Smith.
"Always a competitive game, regardless of recent form,” Sheehan added. "The game has always got a bit of spice to it and certainly a night game seems to bring that added extra bit of of edge as well.
"We know they’ll be a team that will come and compete really hard and will try and upset the flow and rhythm of our play at times, I’m sure, but we’ll hopefully embrace any threat and challenge they pose and impose our own style on the game, which can give us a good chance of performing well.”
Sheehan is looking forward to a home game under lights, an infrequent occurrence: "We play one or two a year, so the fact that they’re so rare it adds a different feel to it. Hopefully we’ll be backed by a really strong support.
"We’ve not played at home for some now and that will add to the occasion, add to the atmosphere and hopefully we’ll thrive off that and put in a really strong game.”
The Blues go into the match five points behind leaders Hashtag United - who are in action at Lewes this evening - with three games in hand on the Tags.
Five of Town’s remaining matches are at the Martello Stadium and Sheehan is pleased to be hosting so many of those fixtures as his side look to reach the Women’s Championship - women’s football’s second tier - for the first time.
"They’re really big tests for us, really important games,” he reflected. "I think the remaining 10 games are going to be so important to us and the fact we’ve got so many at home is going to be beneficial to us with the support and the atmosphere our supporters can bring.
"It’s going to be a really challenging period for us but one we’ll absolutely embrace and hopefully we can finish the season in a really strong position.”