Ipswich Town Women play their first home FAWNL Southern Premier Division fixture of the season this afternoon when they host Hashtag United at the Martello Stadium in Felixstowe (KO 2pm).

The Blues got their season off the the perfect start last weekend when they won 3-0 away against Oxford United, another of the teams fancied to challenge for promotion this season.

Manager Joe Sheehan is looking for vocal home support against Hashtag, the Essex side having finished second in the table last season, nine points behind champions Portsmouth and eight ahead of the Blues, who were fourth.

“We had a home pre-season game a couple of weeks ago which drew in a good crowd and hopefully it will be the same again on Sunday,” he told the club site.

“Our supporters generate a really good atmosphere and hopefully we can see some really high numbers at Felixstowe this season.

“We have spoken a lot about consistency and we want to try and back up results and performances. It will be another tough game on Sunday against a team who had a really good result last time out against Watford.

“We are expecting a really hard working team that will throw everything at the game. They won’t make it easy for us with the togetherness they have.

“It’s a challenge we are really excited by and we will embrace it. We are ready to go and it should be an exciting game.”

Reflecting on the mood following the Oxford victory, he added: “Training has been really positive and we quickly highlighted that it was a really big win, but it is just one game. 

“There’s a really long way to go and, although we will take lots of confidence from beating Oxford, it’s just the start and we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“We’ve got a level which is even higher that we want to reach, and we want to be really consistent and sustain that. That is something we are really striving for.”

Photo: ITFC/Matchday Images

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