FA Cup shocks may be fairly commonplace in the men’s game but while giant-killing acts are still rare in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup, Town Women will be looking to register their very own upset this weekend.

They take on Super League outfit West Ham United in a quarter-final tie at the Goldstar Ground, Felixstowe, on Sunday in front of 2,000 fans and the BBC Red Button channel cameras, and Town defender Paige Peake is in no doubt that reaching this stage of the competition for the very first time speaks volumes for how the club is progressing.

Peake, 19, said: “It’s all really exciting and it shows how far we have come as a club since we lost heavily at Manchester City two years ago. Obviously, we have had another good cup run and the girls are really excited. We’re going to be on TV for the first time and we’ll get that extra bit of exposure that way.”

Capped by England at U19 level, Peake is a rising star in the women’s game and believes the team will actually benefit from their 10-0 thrashing to City in 2020, adding: “We learned a lot from that experience. I think the main thing we all learned from that game was the physicality and pace at that level of the game.

“It probably caught us by surprise a bit at the time but it won’t be a shock this time against West Ham. We know what we’re in for.

“They’re going to be a tough side but we’ll be better prepared than when we went to Manchester City. We’ll be trying to match them for pace and try to not only outrun them but also outwork them.”

Peake acknowledged it would be a massive shock should Town win through to the last four but refused to dismiss her team’s chances. “The reason we see so few upsets in our FA Cup is probably down to the disparity in the leagues,” she said.

“For example, we have the WSL that is full-time and a few clubs in the Championship who are full-time.

“But throughout the men’s pyramid they are all full-time and the majority of National League teams are full-time as well.

“We train three times a week and we are two divisions down from West Ham but in the men’s game, when a team two divisions down meets one from the Premier League, their training models will be similar.

“As long as there’s continued investment and growth in the women’s game, hopefully there will be more cup upsets in the future.

“We know we are up against it on Sunday but we’re a very close-knit team. We are young but a lot of us have played together for some time. For example, I have played with another two of the girls since we were only nine.

“We’ve known each other for ages and grown up with each other, so I think all the success we’re having makes it a bit more special.

“We’ve seen most of, if not all of, each other’s journeys and what we’ve been through, the downs as well as the ups. So, to be able to share the more exciting times like this makes it that bit more special.

“We know only 11 of us can start games but across the whole season the strength of the squad has been shown many times.

“We’ve had injuries but because of who we have available to come into the side we have not suffered. It’s massive to keep that good spirit in and around the place.

“We don’t want kind of negative people who are taking their personal goals ahead of those of the team. That’s not the case at all in our team because we all share the same collective ambition, we’re all pulling together as one and we’re always there for each other.

“We all know that at some point each of us is going to make a difference to what happens right across the whole season.”

Asked about the team’s strengths, Peake added: “We have pace in our side, especially our wing-backs and forwards, who are very quick.

“Penetration is important, whatever game you are playing in, so hopefully we can get behind their backline, put them under some pressure and try to nick a goal that way.

“Our manager, Joe Sheehan, has been the main driving force behind what we have done and are trying to do going forward.

“When he first came in, he had a vision of where he wanted this club to go and where it could get to.

“He’s made massive strides to build that and the difference from where we were then, to where we are now, is huge, and a lot of the credit is down to him for making the vision a reality.

“We’re all quite fearless and we’re not just in this competition to make up the numbers. We want to progress as far as we can but we know the task ahead is not going to be an easy one.

“But you never know if things work in our favour, which you see quite a lot in the men’s cup. There are quite a lot of upsets in the men’s competition but not so many in ours, so hopefully we can kick-start that and make it the first.”

Peake, who signed professional forms with Town in July last year, admitted Sunday’s sell-out crowd could help her team to pull off a shock win.

“It will be great and the atmosphere will be very good,” she explained. We consistently get crowds of around 400 at Felixstowe and a lot of these people follow us around the country, like at Cardiff last weekend.

“To get a full house of 2,000 is great and in the last round the crowd played a big part, especially when it was all down to a penalty shoot-out. Hopefully, the bigger crowd will get behind us again.”

Apart from manager Sheehan’s no-stone-unturned preparations in training, Peake and her colleagues have all been checking on Sunday’s opponents with the help of television coverage of the Super League. She added: “I didn’t watch the West Ham game against Manchester United the other night but I watched them against Chelsea last week. They are used to competing with the best, they’re not a school team.”

Peake also works as part of the analysis department that covers the men’s set-up at Portman Road but apart from what she has seen of the Hammers on television she will be sticking to her role as a player this weekend.

She said: “I haven’t been involved in any of the analysis stuff. I just stick to the men’s first team and try not to cross the line between player and analyst for the women’s team.

“We get a lot of support from the men and they are always asking me how things are going. A few of them are coming to the game on Sunday.”

Town are just two wins away from a Wembley appearance in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup final but, when she was asked if she had dared to dream about that scenario, she smiled: “Maybe a little bit, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves because we have a big quarter-final and it’s not an easy road ahead, so we can’t make any plans. It’s a dream and it’s a dream that I would like to accomplish.”

Peake successfully converted Town’s first spot-kick in their fifth-round penalty shootout victory over Southampton and, having established a reputation as a set-piece specialist, she added: “I wouldn’t mind a few free-kicks just outside the penalty area because it could be our best opportunity to score in the game.

“We’re aware that clear-cut scoring chances will be few and far between, so it would be good to try to capitalise on any free-kicks we are awarded.”

Photo: Ross Halls

Eeyore added 20:06 - Mar 18 I was at the Man City v ITFCW and sadly I counted 11 goals not 10. (Paul Lambert was wandering around looking bemused!) I am so pleased the club are now taking women's football seriously. My daughter plays footie and I think the Women's game is going to be huge in the next 10 years. So pleased that ITFC are on-board. Now we just need an academy/Women's stadium like Man City have to really push things forward. This is the future.

0

Ipswich Town Polls