Tractor Girls’ small army plough on in FA Cup after major off-field overhaul | OneFootball

Ipswich Town go into their Women’s FA Cup tie on Sunday against fellow WSL2 side Sheffield United with the pressure off and spirits high. The Tractor Girls are having a tough debut season in the second tier in the WSL era of women’s domestic football.

They are bottom of the league, five points behind Portsmouth and Durham, with Portsmouth having played a game more. They return to their former Felixstowe home on Sunday for the FA Cup fourth round, having had to make the switch to Colchester to meet the WSL2 ground requirements for league matches.

“The players will have a sense of freedom on Sunday,” says new technical director Sean Burt. “There’s no consequences this week. It doesn’t matter if you go out and you make a mistake because the reality is it’s not going to affect our league standing. So it can be a welcome distraction.”

There has been a lot of change at the club already this month. The manager of seven years, Joe Sheehan, was relieved of his duties on the 6 January, with former player David Wright taking over on an interim basis. Burt was brought in from Hearts on the 12 January, there are big plans for the January transfer window and Sheehan was appointed head of player development and the pro game academy manager on 16 January.

“What we need to do first of all to address our current situation was the discussion I had recently with the leadership,” says Burt. “Being proactive is important. If we don’t, if we’re not successful in staying up, then what do we need to do to come straight back up and build? This isn’t just a case of being really reactive. This is medium to long term. We want Ipswich to win, to be competing at the top end of WSL2 and if unfortunately we do take a step down to tier three, then that’s not going to deter us. We know where we want to be.”

That alignment in the commitment to developing the women’s side is what excited Burt, the former assistant coach and then head of recruitment for the women’s team at Hearts. “When I saw the advert, it struck a chord with me,” he says. “I had the same feeling that I had going into Hearts, of a club at a crucial point of a project and wanting to push on but not really knowing quite how to do that in terms of recruitment and some other things.

“Seeing so many people passionate and aligned around the women’s game and the team here resonated with my own values because it’s something that I’m extremely passionate about and there were a lot of sentimental feelings towards it that I can’t quite describe.”

The arrival of Burt is huge, as is the new role for Sheehan, because it means more people in the small army tasked with running the women’s setup led by head of women’s football, Rachel Harris. The club are also bringing in a wellbeing lead and new sports scientist as they adapt to life in the fully professional second tier.

Harris believes that is an area where teams could do with a little more help at National League level below WSL2. “What they’re trying to do now is they are bringing in more compliance at that level to help bridge that gap so it’s not such a big leap up to WSL2,” says Harris. “At National League level, the funding that you get from a governing body is great, but I believe that there could be a little more resource put in to help staff groups, because it is quite small staff groups that are trying to manage teams from tier three down and they deserve a little bit more help.”

Burt’s passion for recruitment was very important to his arrival in Suffolk. Ipswich have a strong record of providing opportunities to young England players but in WSL2 they need to compete, finding a balance between maintaining that developmental work and adding talent to elevate the team.

“We’ve had players that have been on our pathway and have come all the way through to WSL2 with Joe on that journey and they’ve really taken to it,” says Harris. “Some of those players have absolutely shined this season, so it can be done.”

The departure of the much-liked Sheehan as head coach was a sad one, but his return in a different role speaks to the solidity of the relationships at the club.

“When I came in in December 2024 we had a really small staff,” says Harris. “It was me, Joe, a head of performance and we were utilising other department staff to help. I’ve built a great relationship with Joe, as you have to when you’re such a small team, and being really open, honest and transparent with each other is just so important. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Joe and I’m absolutely delighted that he’s going to stay.”

The big challenge now is keeping the team in the second tier and Ipswich believe survival is not impossible. Apart from games against the top four teams (Charlton, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle), results have been tight.

“Whenever you take on a new role you carry out your own research,” says Burt. “I felt like the margins we’re losing by at the moment are so tiny that it wouldn’t take a lot to swing things in our favour. Anybody that we bring in in January not only brings quality to the group, in terms of what they bring on an individual basis, but it’s going to drive the performance of the current team.

“So, if we’re looking at the players that are in the building at the moment, if we get an extra 1% or 2% out of them because of new arrivals coming in, those small margins that were going against you all of a sudden go in your favour. I think we can quickly turn the tide and we’re going to do everything that we can to stay in WSL2.”

Just how busy will they be in January? “The answer is very,” says Burt. “That’s a massive statement from the board and shows how aligned they are in terms of investing in our women’s programme. We’re not only here to survive, we’re here to thrive, it’s a cliche but it’s true.”

Header image: [Photograph: Charlie Carter/MatchDay Images Limited]