Ipswich Town Women’s boss Joe Sheehan says he and his team won’t be too disheartened following today’s 1-0 defeat away to Watford with the Blues still in the box seat to win the FAWNL Southern Premier Division title and promotion to the Women’s Championship.
Watford, who held Town to a 0-0 draw at the Martello Ground, Felixstowe earlier in the season, again frustrated the Blues, claiming the victory via Maddie Perry’s 64th-minute goal with Sheehan admitting his team never hit their straps.
"Interesting game,” Sheehan told TownTV. "Watford are a solid side, we encountered them at home earlier in the season and I think they can be admired.
"They’ve got some great players, a really clear way of playing, which is refreshing to see at this level. I don’t think there are many that operate like they do.
"We’re under no illusions, we weren’t coming here today expecting to turn up and put in a performance that would get us a win, we have to respect the opposition and know they’re a difficult team to play against and it might be separated by the odd goal.
"I don’t think we found our best gear, I certainly think there were moments when we might have snuck ourselves into the lead, I think we hit the cross-bar just before half-time.
"But overall probably didn’t do enough often enough to really put pressure on and conceded a goal that meant that we were then trying to fight back into the game and the rhythm of the game was disrupted quite a lot towards the end and fair play to Watford for doing that, they did a good job of seeing out the game and it ends in defeat for us.”
Despite the loss, only Town’s second in the league this season following a four-game winning run, the Blues realistically only need to take three points from their remaining two matches to claim the title with their goal difference 27 better than second-placed Hashtag United’s.
Those three points would seem likely to come next Sunday with the Blues in action against bottom side the MK Dons, who they have beaten 13-0 and 12-0 this season already and who have picked up only one point in the league all campaign, at Stadium MK.
"We’re not too disheartened, we never are,” Sheehan reflected. "We want to try and perform and win every game and we felt we were really well prepared today, but weren’t able to find a level to win the game, but we have to take a lot of reflection, review the game and make sure that we can identify the bits that are important to develop.
"We won’t be too disheartened, we’ll try and be really consistent. We’ll come back in, we’ll follow the same processes that have served us well today and we’ll make sure that we have a really solid week of training, improve the things that we think we can improve at this stage and hopefully see that come to light next weekend.”