Breaking down Sophie Peskett's performance vs Southampton 28/03/2026

Breaking down Sophie Peskett's performance vs Southampton 28/03/2026

The day I stop shouting about how good Sophie Peskett is, is the day that I die. Overly dramatic tagline out of the way, I think she's one of the best players in the WSL 2 and she doesn't get nearly enough plaudits online for how good she has been this season. Yes, the obvious part is that she plays for the team (Ipswich) that sit 2nd bottom in the league with only 3 league games to go in order to save themselves from a one season spell in the 2nd tier of women's football in England. That just doesn't do her, or the club, justice though as they have massively improved since the turn of the new year, helped by a busy January transfer window where they recruited 9 new players which have really allowed their performance levels to improve.

Peskett is one of the most direct wingers in the division, and this game was the best example of this that I’ve seen this season, as she constantly looked to take on her opponent in central and wide areas. Generally she is more of a touchline winger but, because she has such a high level of technical competence with her left foot, she looked to play in the inside right channel a lot as well to cut inside to either play the ball forwards to Princess Ademiluyi, who was Ipswich’s number 9 for the day, or to get a shot off in and around the box.

Peskett takes the ball near her own box and looks to take the ball upfield.

She moves towards the wide channel and slows down to bait Palmer in before bursting past her.

She then passes the ball up to Ademiluyi to try to establish play in the Southampton half.

Ademiluyi tries to trap the ball under pressure but Peskett's run got Ipswich into the other half quickly.

Speaking of Ademiluyi, she exhibited really good chemistry with Peskett as the England u-19 international so often found Peskett with 3rd player passes. Her hold-up play was excellent all game to hold off defenders. Ademiluyi looks like a really exciting prospect that is starting to establish herself in this Ipswich front line and she has a gravity around her that makes it nearly impossible for opponents to dispossess her when she traps the ball and her movement in the box ends up creating space for her teammates like Peskett to use. 

Ademiluyi contesting a bouncing ball with Peskett about to run beyond her.

Peskett looks to carry the ball into the boxin a 2v2 with 2 players behind her and Ashworth-Clifford to her left.

She gets a shout/is aware of the late run behind her from Kit Graham arriving near the top of the box.

Graham gets her shot off but gets blocked just in front of the goalkeeper.

Ipswich often push Peskett high up when they have a throw on their right flank and will often have their number 9 behind her to win the first ball. While they didn’t end up bringing Ademiluyi deeper for this throw, this did present Ipswich with one of their best chances all game and showed off how effectively Peskett can find space for herself and exploit it. 

Boswell finds Peskett in space from a throw.

The ball cycles to Leah Mitchell infield and immediately finds Peskett in the space behind 4 Southampton players and she scans to her right to show her where the space is.

She then runs into the space near the box with Palmer bearing down on her.

Again she shows her change of pace and awareness to move away from Palmer.

She then fakes onto her left foot again towards the centre of the box on her left foot.

She gets a well-hit shot off on her left foot that looks to be going towards the top corner but is well saved by Fran Stenson.

One of the things I have noticed when watching her is that she picks her head up when she has the ball and doesn’t get tunnel-visioned which shows as she made the right decision on the ball so many times this game. She really gave Southampton’s Aimee Palmer a tough game on and off the ball, which might seem strange on paper given that Palmer was one of the Saints’ double-pivots on the day. Ipswich really thrive when they’re able to hit teams on the counter-attack since David Wright has been in charge and this really makes the most of Peskett’s desire to constantly play forwards and into big spaces.

Colette Cavanagh wins the ball near the halfway line and Peskett is narrow to pick up the loose ball.

She looks to turn on the ball and attack the space in the centre of the pitch.

Another example of her slowing down to then create space approaching the box.

She cuts the ball across to Ademiluyi in the middle of the box.

One aspect of her game that maybe doesn’t get highlighted as much as her attacking capabilities is how she works as a presser in this team and her general off the ball play defensively. In this game she wasn’t perfect in terms of always tracking her full-back (Jess Simpson) but as the game went on she did largely hold her own and didn’t allow Maria Boswell to be isolated as often in the 2nd half. Her positional awareness is good defensively, which will occasionally see her move into the passing lane on the wide flank to cut out passes, but she’s also really shown a knack for being on the right end of turnovers in the opposition’s half where she’s been able to rack up easy assists. This game showed this exact scenario for her assist to Lucy Ashworth-Clifford in a moment that was foreshadowed in the first minutes of the game.

Graham plays a ball through towards Ademiluyi through the middle.

Ademiluyi and Goddard both go down near the box.

Peskett picks up the loose ball and takes the ball inside on her left foot past Collett.

Ashworth-Clifford is an offside position so isn't a viable pass option so Peskett opts to shoot under Stenson despite having more of the goal to aim for to Stenson's left.

Later on, Bourne fumbles her pass backwards allowing Peskett to nip between the 2 centre-backs.

She gets into the box to open an angle for either a shot or the cut across.

She gets her head up to see where Ashworth-Clifford is in the box.

Her low pass sets up Ashworth-Clifford to make the score 1-1.

One slight downside to her being so willing to use her left foot this game was that she often wasn’t able to get enough on some of her riskier passes which made it easier for the opposition defenders to cut out her attempts at progressing the ball. This game was also not the best showcase for her crossing, which has actually been pretty good this season. Part of this has been that she’s put less emphasis on attacking the byline and actually looked to cut the ball back/across the goal frequently in this game.

Overall this was a really positive performance from Ipswich’s star winger and it’s one that I’d encourage anyone with an interest in the WSL2 to watch as this was a really good showcase of a player that played to get the ball into the final 3rd and make chances for herself and her teammates.