Newmarket Town Women’s manager Kevin Parsons confident his side will be a more solid defensive outfit during 2023/24 campaign

Manager Kevin Parsons is confident that his Newmarket Town Women’s side will be more of a solid outfit during the 2023/24 season.

On their way to a fifth-placed finish in the previous term’s Eastern Region Women's Football League Division One North, the Jockeys conceded 50 goals from their 18 outings – only bottom-of-the-table Yaxley shipped more.

And this summer’s recruitment work has been done with that statistic in mind. Former Cambridge City captain Becca Fay will provide a wealth of experience in the heart of the defence, as will the returning Beth Woodfield, who has been sidelined for more than a year with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Ellie Sturgess has also joined from equivalent-level Wodson Park, with the trio set to provide Newmarket with a more stubborn backbone going into Sunday’s curtain raiser at Stevenage (2pm).

Parsons said: “Our young players did brilliantly for us last year. They learned a lot and will kick on again this season, I’m sure of that. But there was occasions when we were a bit naive as a team and conceded some silly goals.

“It’s something that we wanted to address. We had to chop and change the backline last season and while all of the players did well, we couldn’t build any partnerships.

“Bringing in Becca is a massive signing for us. She won plenty of trophies during her time with Cambridge City and is now looking to get back to enjoying football following a year out after having her baby.

“We know what Beth will bring. She’s captained our team before and made more than 100 appearances before the injury

“She’s someone we’ve missed having in the squad.

“And Ellie has done well in pre-season. She can play left-back or left centre-back so we’ve got some good options there now.”

Newmarket’s previous best finish at their current level was third, achieved in 2021/22.

With more teams in the league this around – growing from seven last term to 12 – matching or surpassing the club record will be tough, yet Parsons believes there is enough quality within the ranks to put up a good fight.

“Our highest finish is third and we’d love to be reaching those similar heights,” he added.

“Ideally you’d like to say you’re going to win the league, but every team would want that and it’s a tough league.

“We feel like we’ve sorted out the backline and if we have good player availability each week I’m sure we’ll have a good season.”