Ipswich Town Women go into their final game of 2025 this afternoon aiming to close the gap between themselves and Sunderland at the bottom of WSL2 when they travel to face their North-East rivals (KO 2pm, live on YouTube)
Defeat at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground in Hetton-le-Hole would move Sunderland eight points ahead of Town and leave the Suffolk side cut adrift in the single relegation position but victory would reduce the deficit to just a point.
The match marks the halfway point in the Blues’ first ever campaign in tier two of the women's game and, even at this stage of the season, some may view the game as the proverbial six-pointer.
"If you spend time looking at the league table, you’d probably say yes,” Town manager Joe Sheehan. "But I certainly don’t.
"We have an opportunity to close a gap on teams in front of us. We try not to put too much emphasis on individual games, we know they’re all important and some games give us more chance of picking up points than others. That's our position.”
Sheehan is having to deal with a spate of illness within his squad which may impact which players have made the long journey north. After starring in the FA Cup win at Portchester last weekend with a goal and two assists, Maddy Earl is one of those who may not play.
Sheehan said: "Maddy didn't train today [Wednesday]. Charlotte [Fleming] didn’t train today, again with illness. Those two started at the weekend.
"Maddy trained yesterday but not today. We don't know if either of them will be in tomorrow. Hopefully they are.
"Ruby Doe is working her way back. Sophie Baigent’s been really unfortunate and can’t seem to catch a break at the moment and has had some recurring issues, predominantly a back issue.
"With those two in particularly we can’t get them on the pitch for long enough to prepare them to be an important part of our squad. Definitely those two are unavailable and we’ll wait to see where we're at with Charlotte and Maddy.”
Sunderland were unbeaten in their opening four games of the season but have since lost five of their last six in the league and Sheehan believes it may be a good time to play the Wearsiders.
"I think so,” he reflected. "We’re obviously trying to close the gap on the teams above. I’m not sure we’d be everyone’s first-choice of opposition in the last game before Christmas, certainly for the ones just above us.”
The North-East side boast the talents of the WSL2 leading goalscorer in six-goal Emily Scarr but Sheehan believes Sunderland possess quality in many areas.
"They've recruited really well,” he continued. [Evie] Rabjohn and Keira [Barry] from Manchester United were really two signings for them, players we know and who we think have got a lot of potential - Keira Barry’s also been a part of England’s U23s. They’ve also got some strong, well-established players in the division.
"Katie Kitching has been a big player for them. There are one or two others as well that we feel have been quite impressive.
"They’ve got some good players. They are relatively established in the division. They’ve not been in the best of form of late. They’re a team that started the season really well but haven’t quite got the results lately. We feel they’re a really good opposition for us to face just before Christmas.”
With the mid-season transfer window set to open in January, there is an opportunity for the women’s side to reinforce their squad next month. Sheehan revealed that he expects the club to back him with the investment he believes is necessary to stay in the league.
"The initial signs are that we're going to be really well backed,” he added. "We’ve had some really good meetings over the last few months leading up to the January window.
"We want to invest, we want to recruit. We want to strengthen the squad. We feel like if we can do that and get in the right players, we’re going to be in a really good position come the end of the window to hopefully finish the season really strong.”