When Ipswich Town Women make their eagerly anticipated first WSL2 appearance at the JobServe Community Stadium in Colchester on Sunday, defender Paige Peake will be making her second home debut for the club having rejoined after three years away playing for Southampton.
The 22-year-old, who revealed she came back to watch the Blues during international breaks in the past few seasons, insists that "it’s great” to be back in Suffolk.
"The place has changed quite a lot as a whole, a lot of upgrades since I was last here,” she said. "It's been really nice, I feel like I’ve settled back in really quickly.”
With inevitability, Peake’s first game after returning to Ipswich Town last weekend saw her return to her former club at St Mary’s Stadium.
It was to be no happy return for the defender. Outpaced by Ellie Brazil in the build-up to the first goal, Peake twice saw attackers run across her from corners as Town went in 3-0 down at half-time before eventually losing 4-0. Head coach Joe Sheehan admitted that the team’s defending from corners is something they must improve on.
It was a particularly chastening experience for the defender having made 66 appearances for the Saints.
"We’ve obviously looked at the goals we conceded,” she said. "We’ve worked on what we felt went wrong or could have been prevented to stop them. We learn quickly and take those learnings into the next game.”
After three years of turning out in the second tier for Southampton, Peake cited the physicality and speed of play as the biggest differences between WSL2 and the Women’s National League from which Town were promoted.
However, Peake dismisses concerns that the four-goal defeat last week is a sign that playing in WSL2 will be too big a step up.
"I’ve said to some of the girls that it’s 'what you don't know, you don't know '. When I was at Southampton, it took us a couple of games to settle in. It’s all very new but you’ve just got to make sure once you’re exposed to that stuff, you learn quickly from it. So if we can do that, we’ll be absolutely fine.”
In her previous stint at Town, the teenage Peake combined her training with time spent working for, the then-new, men’s manager Kieran McKenna. As well as being part of the recruitment department for the club, she also filmed men’s training sessions for tactical analysis using a drone.
"Back then, we were still part-time so I worked for the men’s first team doing performance analysis in the summer before I left. I worked in recruitment for them as well, which was a good experience and helped me.
"Even just the exposure of watching them day in, day out, learning what it takes to be a high-performing team in a men’s environment which was something I’d not seen before.”
Peake says working behind the scenes in the game may be an area she explores when her playing career eventually finishes and revealed what the experience taught her.
"It's definitely something I’d consider going back into,” she continued. "I also really enjoyed the recruitment side of it so I’m not closed off to either of those after my playing career.”
On Sunday, Town host the other newly promoted WSL2 side, Nottingham Forest. The Midlands club also lost their opening game, at home to Newcastle last weekend, 2-1.
Nevertheless, Peake does not necessarily believe that makes them someone the Blues must defeat to stay in the division.
Sheehan believes that Forest, who have brought in four players from the Women's Super League plus Spanish international Nahikari García on loan, will be one of the contenders for promotion the top of the league, something Peake agrees with.
"Every team in this league is highly competitive,” she added. "They've recruited very well over the summer so I don’t think it will easy. Hopefully we can get the three points, but I don’t think that will be a given by any means.”
More than 1,000 tickets have been sold for Sunday’s game in Colchester, the women’s team’s first match at their new Essex home at the JobServe Community Stadium. Peake said the players had visited the ground and were impressed with the facilities.
"We went and had a look around the ground the other week,” she recalled. "It’s nice - big changing room, good facilities.
"The grass looks great, which is the most important thing. Yeah, I think it will be a really good ground. Hopefully we can get a good atmosphere there on the weekend and make it a good place for us to win three points.”