Ipswich Town Women’s captain Maria Boswell says it will be a dream come true to lift the FAWNL Southern Premier Division trophy at the Martello Ground, Felixstowe on Sunday.

The Blues all but confirmed promotion with an 11-0 win away against the MK Dons a fortnight ago - they’re three points ahead of Hashtag United with one to play with a goal difference 36 superior to the Essex side’s - but Sunday’s sell-out game in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 against eighth-placed Cheltenham Town will see them confirm the title and a place in the Women’s Championship for the first time.

The final whistle on Sunday will be the result of several seasons of hard work from manager Joe Sheehan and his squad and Boswell, who took on the captaincy in December 2023, says holding the trophy aloft will be a dream come true.

“I think I’ve probably spent four years thinking about it, what that day is going to be like!” the 22-year-old confessed.

“I’ve been in the club six years, I’ve been in and around the first team about four years and every single year, I’ve thought about what this day could be like, what the feeling’s going to be like of arriving, seeing so many people there, lifting the trophy.

“I’ve dreamt about it, I’ve thought about it a lot and I know it’s going to live up to those expectations and those dreams that I had.

“It’s a sell-out crowd, hopefully everyone brings the noise, brings the atmosphere and just has a really good day of celebrating and enjoying the moment.

“In previous seasons, sometimes early on in the season, things have not gone our way and those dreams have been dashed pretty early on, especially last season.

“But I think in every pre-season I’ve come in at Ipswich, every first few games, it’s always on my mind and I’m sure everyone’s minds to have that moment.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that up until now and I can’t really put into words how much it will mean to me to be there with the girls on the pitch lifting that trophy.

“We’ve all worked incredibly hard this season and for the past six seasons, Tash [all-time top scorer and appearance-maker Natasha Thomas] has been here nearly 10 seasons.

“There’s so much emotion invested in it. It will mean a lot and I’m looking forward to it, will try and take it all in and realise that it’s probably a moment that I’ve thought about for a very long time and just to savour that.”

Having effectively confirmed the title and promotion at Stadium MK, Boswell was asked whether they allowed themselves some celebrations after that game.

“I think would have been silly not to because we’ve worked so hard throughout the season,” she admitted. “I think something would have to go severely wrong for things not to go our way on Sunday.

“I think we allowed ourselves a little bit of time to just take it all in. You don’t get opportunities like this very often, to enjoy a promotion to the Championship, so when we realised what we’d done, we took a moment just to appreciate it and be in the moment and enjoy it.

“But we’re very aware that we’ve still got one game to go and we want to win that game. It’s still a league game that we want to be competitive in. We want to have as many clean sheets on the board, as many goals on the board and we really don’t want to win the league, if we do on Sunday, on goal difference, we want to do it on points.

“That’s important for us, to train as hard as we can this week, which we have done, and get the points on Sunday.”

However, the former Arsenal youngster says the squad have discussed their celebrations following the Cheltenham game.

“I think there have been some plans talked about this week after the Sunday,” she said. “I think that was the time when we could start actually thinking ahead to this Sunday now.

“Some things have been put in place, we’ll be celebrating, for sure. We’ll see, if things do go our way. I have to put that out there!

“If things do go our way, we’ve got a lot of things planned and it will be a great day for the club as a whole, for our team, players, staff and hopefully for the fans as well.”

Right-back Boswell returned to action as a sub at Stadium MK having suffered a knee injury at Hashtag United in early March, which had seemed set to see her miss the rest of the season.

But she says she’s feeling good having made her target of returning before the end of the campaign.

“I’m all good,” she continued. “Knee’s feeling good, feeling strong, back on the pitch. I’ve had about three weeks of training now and just getting back in the swing of things, feeling good, feeling confident and very pleased to be back out there with the girls.

“In the moment I thought that was the season done, possibly even going into next season, I was questioning that.

“And then managed to have my scan pretty quickly and got the results of that and even when we got the results, it was very good news, but there was still a bit of a question whether I’d get back for the end of the season because we only had seven games to go.

“That was upsetting at the time, but I made it my mission to do everything I could to get back for even the last game and in the end I managed to get back for the last two.

“I’m very pleased with how the recovery went and the rehab went, I tried to work as hard as I could and thankfully I managed to get out there with the girls.”

And she was delighted to get back on the pitch alongside her teammates in the 83rd minute of what was effectively the decisive result.

“It was a great moment,” she reflected. “It was the thing that was getting me through those days when the girls were out on the pitch and I was in the gym, coming in on days off, stuff like that. It was the thought of that moment that pushed me to get through those times.

“Coming onto the pitch for the last few minutes of the MK Dons game, just to be out there with the girls and when the final whistle went, to have that moment on the pitch with the girls was exactly what I wanted.

“I can support as much as I can from the stands, from the sidelines when I was injured, but it’s completely different to be out there with the girls and celebrating in that kind of moment.”

During her spell out, she never questioned that her teammates would get the job done in her absence.

“When I got injured, I had no doubt in my mind that the girls would do that,” she insisted. “They don’t need me on the pitch, we’ve got leaders, Kyra [Robertson], Tash, people like that who have been there and done it and knew exactly what needed to be done.

“We bounced back from the Hashtag disappointment [a 1-0 defeat in the game in which she got injured] really well, the girls did excellent to come out the week after against Wimbledon and get a result [a 3-0 win]. That’s not an easy place to go to and get a result, they’ve taken points off a lot of teams this year in our league.

“We all knew what we had to do following the Hashtag game, seven games remaining after that and the girls’ discipline, work ethic from then on was so, so good.

“It’s good sometimes to take a step back and appreciate how much effort everyone puts in on a day-to-day basis.

“Obviously, I was doing my stuff behind the scenes, but the girls week-in, week-out on the pitch, before the game, during the game, were so dialled into what we had to go and do.

“There was no other option for us. I think we said that at the start of the season, there was always one thing in our minds and we didn’t want to veer too far away from that path that we were on.”

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