Ipswich Town Women could confirm the FAWNL Southern Premier Division title and promotion to the Women’s Championship for the first time when they take on the MK Dons at Stadium MK on Sunday afternoon (KO 2pm).
Joe Sheehan’s side moved three points clear at the top of the table by beating Gwalia United 2-0 a fortnight ago, before losing 1-0 away to Watford, who are fourth in the table, last Sunday.
The Blues and second-placed Hashtag United both have two games to play with Town’s vastly superior goal difference meaning they will effectively be crowned champions and promoted should Sunday’s result match the Tags’ at home to third-placed Exeter City. Taking more points would absolutely confirm the title and the one promotion place.
A Town victory over the Dons should be a formality with the Buckinghamshire side bottom of the table on only one point all season and the Blues having thrashed them 13-0 and 12-0 in the league and FA Cup in successive weeks in October and November.
Manager Sheehan expects his team to bounce back from the loss to the Hornets having reacted well to similar setbacks in the past.
"We’ve obviously suffered some disappointing results prior to that and we’ve always responded the same,” he told TownTV.
"We’ve come back in with a fresh energy, an appetite to reflect and learn from the game and take the good things from it as well as the things we want to be better at, and that’s been no different following Sunday’s defeat.
"Spirits are high. We said post-match that we wouldn’t be too disheartened and we’ve come back in really eager to kick on and work really hard.”
The Blues boss, who has been in his role since February 2019, says the previous very big wins against Sunday’s opponents haven’t been discussed.
"We haven’t really spoken about those games,,” he said. "We haven’t really spent a lot of time focusing on Milton Keynes it was more reflecting on the defeat against Watford, making sure we got some good recovery in, preparing and getting sessions for the week that we felt were going to be important for the game.
"We then started to look at MK Dons in more detail, more depth, making sure that we’re well prepared to play them that hopefully could enable us to put in a really strong performance.”
Regarding what he anticipates from MK, Sheehan added: "Probably a team that will be full of spirit, full of fight, full of energy, will try and get bodies forward at times where possible and try and pose a threat on our backline.
"It’s their last home game of the season so they’ll want to try and sign off with a really solid performance and they’ll get our respect as every team we’ve faced have.
"We’ll take them incredibly seriously and make sure we’re well prepared to try and face their best version and perform the best that we can.”
Despite the significance of the match, Sheehan, who reports no new injuries aside from tiredness after a long season, says it’s been treated like any other: "We’ve been the same all season, certainly in the last six weeks we’ve prepared for each day and each game in isolation.
"We’ve prepared this week with a focus to try and perform to beat Milton Keynes Dons and that’s all we’ll try and do.”
Men’s boss Kieran McKenna wished Sheehan and his side well for Sunday’s game, hoping they can maintain the club’s recent promotion record.
"We’re all fingers crossed and, of course, we believe it’s going to happen,” he said.
"But having been in that position, I spoke to Joe this week, even when everyone else thinks it’s inevitable, when you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t feel quite as inevitable as it does to everyone else.
"I know he very much thinks, and the message around their group is, that they’ve got a job to do and they’ve got real confidence to do it, and hopefully they can get over the line.
"And if they do, it’ll be well deserved and the fruits of quite a few years now of hard work from that group and hopefully they’ll get their reward this year.
"It’ll be good to keep the ratio of one promotion a year, so hopefully they can carry that one on this year.”
Town have sold 200 tickets in advance for the game with tickets also available on the day at Stadium MK.