Ipswich Town Women’s scheduled first match under interim manager David Wright against WSL2 leaders Charlton Athletic at the JobServe Stadium, Colchester this afternoon has been postponed due to a frozen surface.
A pitch inspection was carried out at 9am this morning when it was deemed unplayable. A new date will be set in due course.
The game was set to be the first since manager Joe Sheehan’s shock sacking after seven years - and a further two in other positions at the club - earlier in the week with former Blues right-back Wright, who had been coaching the men’s U18s, stepping into the role.
Wright, who had also spent some time working with the women’s team over the last couple of months, was asked about his week and the changes which have taken place with the women’s side, which goes into 2026 bottom of the WSL2 in their first ever season in the second tier.
"Busy, very busy,” Wright told TownTV, on Friday. "Obviously, I’d first like to speak about Joe, the brilliant job that he’s done. He’s been here for the best part of nine years. I think probably where the women’s game was when he came in to where it is now, it’s like night and day.
"So he’s done an absolutely brilliant job. He's a great guy, I know him personally, we were on the phone last night to each other chatting as well. He’s a great guy and I’m sure when he moves on to the next part of what he’s going to do on his journey, he’ll do great things there.
"But it has been busy, it has been busy for the staff. The day that we found out the news it was early-ish morning, so getting planned and prepped and getting a session pulled together, I thought the staff were great. I thought they handled it really professionally.
"And then the girls found out. A lot of the girls have been with Joe for a long, long period, so there were all kinds of different emotions I would have thought when they found out.
"But their reaction and their focus from that news has been great for last few days. They’re really, really professional and they went out onto the grass and trained really well, so full credit to the staff and the players.”
Regarding how training has gone, he added: "It’s been really good working with them, they really want to learn. They’re really engaged. They really want to work, they really want to perform at a high level, which is great for a culture when you’re coming in and you’re working straight away with people with a hunger to learn. It’s great.
"So they’ve been good to be. We’ve worked on a lot of things. I think the training’s been quite intense for a couple of days and it will be again this morning, so probably they’ll be getting used to me as much as I’m getting used to them, but it’s my job to get to know first how they work, the best way to coach them as individuals and then pull them all in together as a team.”
Meanwhile, keeper Natalia Negri has been nominated for the British Gas Save of the Month award for December for her stop from Mariana Speckmaier against Durham.
The Town number one is up against Grace Moloney (Sunderland), Shae Yanez (Crystal Palace) and Fran Bentley (Bristol City) tfor the gong. Vote can be cast here.