Ipswich Town Women’s boss Joe Sheehan is taking nothing for granted, despite this afternoon’s 11-0 thrashing of the MK Dons all but guaranteeing his side will be playing Women’s Championship football next season.
Town and second-placed Hashtag United have one game remaining each with the Blues three points ahead, but as their goal difference is 36 better than the Essex side the FAWNL Southern Premier Division title will only be going in one direction.
Asked how he was feeling after the victory over the Dons, a third double-figures win against them this season following 13-0 and 12-0 successes at home in the league and FA Cup respectively, Sheehan said: "I’m not sure, to be totally honest. It’s a big win for us and one we knew we needed, but nothing’s done yet or confirmed.
"Maybe a little bit mixed feelings in obviously feeling really pleased that we’ve managed to win the game convincingly and put ourselves in a good position going into our final game.
"There’s still one more to play and until it’s mathematically confirmed, then I’ll hold off that extra bit of feeling and elation until we hopefully get over the line.”
Reflecting on the performance, in which forward Sophie Peskett netted six goals, he added: "It’s an unusual circumstance for us, knowing that we were two games out from finishing the season and there was the possibility of us getting what we set out to do at the start of the season today.
"But, a real, composed, committed, professional performance. Lots of goals, some really well-worked goals, six for Pesk, which is remarkable and a real collective team effort, which has put ourselves in a really strong position with one game to go.”
While the division is almost certainly won, Sheehan says his message to his squad is to keep their intensity going until the end of the final game against Cheltenham Town at the Martello Stadium in a fortnight.
"We have to enjoy the feeling that we have currently, but we’ve still got one game to go and we want to make sure we end the season with a convincing performance that hopefully results in a final-day win,” he said.
"It’s a tip of the hat to them because most of us have probably not been in a situation where you’re coming here today to play and you pretty much need to win the game, which we had to do.
"All sorts of emotions and maybe a bit of nerves and apprehension, but they delivered a really strong performance but the message will be to enjoy the result but nothing’s confirmed, nothing’s official, so we’ve still got the game to reflect on, we’ll still fulfil our work and reflect on the game, will train really well next week, have a weekend off before coming back into prepare to play Cheltenham at home.”
Sheehan had praise for his squad: "Tremendous. A joy to work with, every day throughout the week. I think there’s a special connection between staff and players, and the players are such a together group.
"Togetherness is probably a huge pillar in our environment, it underpins everything we do each day and they’ve been brilliant to work with. They’ve worked really hard, they’ve had to deal with some tough breaks at times and have won some important and big games that perhaps we hadn’t done previously.
"There’s been a massive contribution from everybody, so pleased to see them perform and get the win today, but, hopefully, in a couple of weeks’ time, we’ll get our just rewards.”
Sheehan, who has been in charge since February 2019 and saw the side to the FAWNL National League South East Division titles in 2019/20 and 2020/21, the latter leading to promotion, was asked what this season’s title and elevation to the Women’s Championship means to him.
"Everything,” he continued. "It’s been a long process, lots of years of laying the groundwork and foundations and doing some tasks which we’re now very fortunate that we’ve got other people that deliver.
"Seeing it right from the start, have pushed really hard on a few occasions to try and achieve it and fell short, but we’d like to think we were in a really strong position this year and really attacked it. Put our foot on the gas, conducted ourselves impeccably, established some really strong momentum and rolled with that. Won some important games and responded well when it hasn’t gone our way.
"A little bit mixed emotions as it’s not done yet, but, hopefully, when it is there’ll be a real sense of pride and elation that we’ve worked so hard and for so long to try and achieve.”