Ipswich Town Women get their WSL2 season under way on Sunday when they host Nottingham Forest at the JobServe Community Stadium in Colchester (KO 2pm, live on YouTube) and TWTD spoke to manager David Wright ahead of his first full season in charge.

It’s been a summer of great change for the Town Women’s squad with familiar names from the last few seasons such as Natasha Thomas, Sophie Peskett, Kyra Robertson and Summer Hughes moving on and 15 signings made.

“We’ve had players leave and it’s really important that they’re recognised for the role that they’ve played in terms of where the club was to where the club is now,” Wright said. “They’ve played a huge, huge part in that, so we will be forever thankful to the girls.

“In terms of the girls who have come in, obviously we’ve recruited, we wanted to evolve the squad and we’ve had investment in from our owners and a lot of support from [CEO and chairman] Mark [Ashton] and [chief operating officer] Luke [Werhun] and [director of football operations] Dmitri [Halajko], which has been great.

“And that’s what we want to do. We want to keep evolving, we want to keep getting better and better.

“That’s not just on the pitch, it’s the infrastructure off the pitch that we’ve invested in as well because that’s what we want to do. We want to have a really, really strong women’s team.”

Town finished ninth in the club’s first season in the second tier last term having struggled in the first half of the campaign before adding to the squad in the January window following Wright’s appointment as interim-manager, taking over from the long-serving Joe Sheehan,

Wright says the aim of this summer’s business was to step up another level.

“I think that’s what we’ve tried to do,” he continued. “We want to evolve and we want to evolve in a positive way. Also recruiting players that fit my style of play, that’s what we’ve done as well.

“We’ve gone away, Sean [Burt, technical director] and Alfie [Remblance, first-team recruitment and performance analyst] worked their socks off during the end of last season into the close season to identify the players that were available and then going out and bringing them in.

“And the pair of them have done a great job and we’re really pleased with the recruitment that we’ve done. And now we’re excited that the season’s now upon us and we can get going.”

Burt joined Town from Hearts, where he was head of women’s recruitment, in January and six of the summer additions have come from the SWPL, including three from his former club.

“It’s been a really good market for us,” one-time Blues full-back Wright continued. “I think maybe some of the girls were under the radar, in my opinion, and we’ve signed some really exciting players, which is going to be really beneficial for us moving forward.”

The aim last season was clear, to stay in the WSL2 and Wright says this year’s target with the improved squad and outside investment close to being confirmed is to make further progress.

“I think we want to build on what we did last year,” he said. “We want to keep moving that forward and we want a real strong, positive season. That’s what we want to do. That’s why we’ve invested so much into the women’s team.

“And that’s it. We want to progress. We want to move forward. We want to build on what we did last year and if we do that, it’ll be a positive season.”

Regarding the prospect of winning promotion to the WSL, the top flight of women’s football, he added: “I think where the girls were in terms of the league status, where they were a couple of years ago, to how fast this has evolved to where we are now, the girls and staff that were here beforehand, have got to take a lot of credit for that.

“We’ve just got to keep building, on the pitch and off the pitch and the infrastructure and giving the girls more support, which then allows them to get better and better. It works hand in hand. It’s going to take us time, but we are really, really driven to make that happen.”

Sunday’s game will be the first chance for fans to take a look at most of the summer signings with all the pre-season friendlies having been behind closed doors.

While Kit Graham and Kenzie Weir have signed permanently following loans last season, wingers Rosie Livingstone, Megan Hornby and Tegan McGowan, midfielders Jenna Slattery and Aimee Palmer, centre-half Georgia Hunter, full-backs Jorja Fox and Emma Lawton, forwards Eilidh Adams, Rosella Ayane and Mary McAteer, and striker Georgia Timms are yet to play a game in front of their new fans. One signing, returning loanee Ava Baker returned to parent club Birmingham early this week before joining Sheffield United.

Quizzed on why the friendlies weren’t open to the public, Wright said: “A lot of it was discussions between the teams that we played. We played a lot of WSL teams and they wanted games to be behind closed doors, so we were happy with that because of the level of team that we were going to play against.

“We’ve had a real good variety of games through pre-season. We’ve had games where we’ve been able to dominate, games that are a bit nip and tuck and then games against really good WSL teams where we knew we’d have real moments in the games where we were going to have to suffer in those moments, and the girls have been magic in those moments in the games that we’ve played, so we’re in a really good position.”

The 46-year-old believes those games have prepared his squad for the varying approaches they’ll face during the season proper.

“Football’s football and coaches have different ways of playing the game,” he reflected. “If we look forward to Nottingham Forest, their manager [Tom Mallinson] wants a very possession-based team, he wants the ball, he wants to have a lot of the ball. They’ll move the ball from side to side, they’ll try and penetrate you centrally.

“So it’s a bit whatever fits the team and the manager we’re playing up against. We’ll get all kinds of games next year, which is part of football.”

Wright was appointed Town boss on a permanent basis close to the end of last season having coached boys’ academy sides at Playford Road as well as at Norwich and Colchester United, where he was also first-team assistant manager and for a spell in caretaker charge, and also had a spell as boss of non-league Maldon & Tiptree.

Quizzed on whether his approach or philosophy has changed since moving into the women’s game, he said: “Not really, I think the game’s the game, the game’s not going to change, it’s the same size pitch, same size goals, same number of players.

“I think there’s certain bits. You can talk about the physicality side of it in terms of, if you’ve got one of our men’s first-team players, they can switch the attack in one pass. They can hit 50, 60-yard diagonal balls and really change the attack very, very quickly.

“Where we can’t do that, but we can still change the attack to a different point, but we’re going to have to connect a pass. So we’re going to have to go there and there. We’re going to have to go like 30 yards to 30 yards. You’re still switching the ball, it just looks slightly different.

“In terms of what I find working with the girls is how they want to know the why and how, they want the knowledge, they’re constantly thirsty for the knowledge.

“You do something tactical and it’s like, why? They want to really understand the why to then go and execute it, whereas working with some men, men are a bit more like, ‘right, can you do this?’, ‘yeah, bang’, and they go and do it.

“They don’t necessarily want to know, and I’m not saying that’s all men, because obviously that’s not the case, but I would say the majority of the women are really intrigued in terms of understanding why, which is really refreshing for a coach. And it also keeps you on your toes because you can’t blag it.

“You’ve got to know the background, you’ve really got to be detailed in why. It can’t just be, ‘I’ll just do it’, because the girls won’t accept that, which is great.

“And the coaches, myself and my staff, have really got to be on their toes, they’ve really got to think about what we’re delivering.

“There’s a reason why I’m not massive on just generic sessions, I’m not big on that. I like sessions that fit into the game. You’ve got to practise the game as much as you can, so when the game comes round, the girls have practised it on numerous occasions.

“The practices might look completely different in isolation, but when you put it on the big pitch, that little isolation bit, you put it on the big pitch, it looks exactly the same.

“So the girls are practising on the same pitches, the same feel, the same pace, the same bits and pieces. So you’ve got to be on your toes with that, which I really enjoy.”

Two teams will be relegated from WSL2 this season, as opposed to one last term, but Wright doesn’t want to be looking towards that end of the table.

“We want to carry on where we left off,” he insisted. “That is the plan and obviously the position that we find ourselves in now, in terms of how we’ve evolved the squad and moving forward, that’s what we want to do.

“We want to be really, really positive. We don’t want to look down the table. We want to look up the table because that’s where we want to move up.”

Regarding who he expects to challenge at the top end, he said: “I think there are a number. I think that’s probably the thing, it’s not just us that have really invested.

“There’s a number of clubs, the Newcastles, Bristol City, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, they’ve all invested.

“I think the league is just going to get stronger and stronger and stronger, which is really positive for the women’s game, and we want to be part of that evolution of the women’s game and moving it forward.”

The summer saw former boss Sheehan move on to WSL Charlton, where he has been appointed assistant coach, having taken on a new job as professional game academy manager at Town in January after leaving his first-team role.

Wright says it was never a problem having Sheehan, who had been in the hotseat for seven years, still working at the club.

“I’ve known Joe for a long time, so me and Joe were not colleagues, we were actually friends, so it was never an issue,” he said.

“I’m really pleased that he’s got his role now. We were obviously talking when the role came about, his new role, so I’m over the moon for him.

“He’s a great guy and it’s always nice seeing good things happening to good people, so it was never an issue and I wish him all the best.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s game, Wright will be without striker Princess Ademiluyi, who is with the England squad at the U20 World Cup in Poland, where they play their first group game against Canada later this afternoon.

“To be fair, we had a little chuckle, me and P,” Wright smiled. “I was like, I’m over the moon that you’ve been called up for you and your family and you’re representing the country, it’s absolutely brilliant, but for me personally, I wish you weren’t going.

“One, there’s a little voice that’s over the moon for her, but there’s a little voice going, ‘Oh, God, we could do with having a player of her quality!’.

“To have her missing is tough, but then that’s why we’ve gone out and we’ve recruited the way we have.

“So while she’s away, and I’m sure she’ll smash it because she’s a great talent and a great person, and, hopefully, for her, they go all the way and they win it, which would be brilliant for her and her family and the country.

“But I’m looking forward to the day she walks back in and then sticks a Town shirt back on.”

Asked whether he has any fitness issues going into Sunday’s game, Wright says there are one or two.

“I think it’s just a normal pre-season,” he said. “We’ve got probably a handful of injuries, but nothing any different from any other football club, I would have thought, at this time of year. The girls are working their socks off and I’m sure they’ll be back soon enough.”

Pressed on whether he’d give any names, he added: “Not at the moment. I don’t want Nottingham Forest sat there going, ‘She may or may not be playing’, I’ll keep that secret.”

Photo: TWTD