Five West Ham United women’s team loanees were in action for their respective temporary clubs at the weekend...
Ruby Doe and Ipswich Town celebrated promotion to the Barclays Women’s Championship after they clinched the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division title on Sunday courtesy of an 8-0 thrashing at home to Cheltenham Town.
The 19-year-old, who won Ipswich’s Player of the Month award for March, played 73 minutes of the contest and was withdrawn with the Tractor Girls three to the good.
Goals from Natasha Thomas did plenty of damage as she helped herself to a hat-trick, alongside further goals from Lucy O’Brien, Ella Rutherford, Sophia Peskett, Ruby Seaby and Kaci-Jai Bonwick.
Promotion was all-but sealed before the weekend’s action, but second-place Hashtag United slipped to a 2-0 loss at Oxford United, in which Ellie Moore was not involved for the Tags.
🎶 SING IT!!!! pic.twitter.com/s9oJViXlll
— Ipswich Town F(C) Women (@ITFCWomen) April 27, 2025
Whether Town will face second-place Birmingham City or leaders London City Lionesses next season will go right down to the wire in what is set to be a mouth-watering final day in the Championship.
Both of the promotion-chasing teams drew at the weekend, meaning, with two points separating the sides, whoever wins when they play each other at St Andrew’s on Sunday will be promoted to the Barclays Women’s Super League. London City Lionesses start top, so only a win would see the Blues' women emulate their men's team by going up a division.
Shannon Cooke played all 90 minutes of the Blues’ 1-1 draw away at Newcastle on Sunday, in which Rachel Furness cancelled out Simone Magill’s opener for the visitors.
Elsewhere in the division, Jessie Stapleton played all 90 minutes of Sunderland’s last-minute 3-2 victory at Bristol City.
The Robins took the lead through Lexi Lloyd-Smith, but the Black Cats turned the contest on its head via a brace from Ellen Jones. And while it looked like Lloyd-Smith’s second of the afternoon, 20 minutes from time, had salvaged a point, Sunderland grabbed a late winner as Katy Watson struck in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Keira Flannery was an unused substitute for seventh-place Sunderland.
In Sweden, Inès Belloumou played all of Malmö FF’s 1-1 draw at home to early unbeaten Allsvenskan Women leaders Hammarby. Ellen Ingegerd Wangerheim opened the scoring on 58 minutes for Hammarby, before Izzy D’Aquila scored an 88th-minute equaliser to share the spoils, which moved Malmö up to third in the embryonic table.
In Turkey, Halle Houssein’s Beylerbeyi fell to a 1-0 Women's Football Super League loss at Fenerbahce after Yasam Goksu’s goal in the 41st minute, leaving them fifth with two games to play.
