Lisa Evans strike sees West Ham edge out Ipswich in Women’s FA Cup

Joe Sheehan, the Ipswich manager, called for more teams to be promoted from the third tier to the women’s Championship following his team’s gutsy performance in a 1-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to the Women’s Super League side West Ham.

“I think there should be loads [of teams being promoted],” said Sheehan. “There are so many clubs like ours that are doing so much, that are investing so much, that are committing so much. I want us all to achieve, I want us, Southampton, Wolves, [Nottingham] Forest, teams that are really trying to do things to a really high level, all to be rewarded.”

Sheehan’s frustrations stem from the fact that the winner of the FA Women’s National League South is not guaranteed promotion, but must compete in a play-off against the National League North winners for the solo promotion spot available in tier two. “I understand it’s a competition and results on the pitch should reward it,” he said.

“But we play 26 league games and could win 24 and not go up. I just don’t get it. But four go down. I understand that they are trying to rejig things a bit, but there’s too much good going on in tier three, and areas of tier four.” Ipswich are currently top of the league, four points clear of Oxford United and 13 clear of Southampton, who have five games in hand.

In front of a sold-out crowd of over 2,000, the Tractor Girls impressed against a team that plays two tiers above them and is currently on a best ever WSL points tally. “Physically I think we’re closer than I thought we would be, which is great,” said Sheehan. “Even for us to still match them and work as hard as we did with eight, nine, 10 minutes to go was still good. We’ve got players that are still 17, 18, 19 and they’re always going to take more